Jacina Ardern has announced that New Zealand will offer free coronavirus vaccines to its neighbouring Pacific Islands.
The Kiwi prime minister revealed on Thursday that the country – which has effectively eliminated Covid-19 – has secured deals for two additional vaccines.
Prior to signing the new deals for the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Novavax jabs, New Zealand had already secured close to five million doses of various vaccines. But it will now have an additional 18.3 million.
With a population of just five million, the country now expects to have triple the number of vaccines required – so will offer spares to close-by nations for free.
“We now have agreements in place with four providers, covering three different types of vaccine technology and we have secured more than enough doses to cover our entire population plus the Pacific,” Ardern said.
Free doses will be provided to Tokelau, Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu, NPR reported.
And Nanaia Mahuta – the country’s foreign minister – said that New Zealand is committing $65 million of development assistance money to support Pacific nations to “access safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines at the earliest opportunity.”
Related: Trump ponders martial law, considers ‘kraken’ conspiracist for special counsel
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .
