COVID-19 vaccine: 40.000 doses of AstraZeneca arrive in TL from Australia

20 thousand doses of AstraZeneca which had been offered by Australian’s Government to Timor-Leste were transported with Qantas spirit Austrália VH-XZC airline and landed in Dili on wednesday, may 5, 2021. Image TATOLI/António Gonçalves

DILI, 08 july 2021 (TATOLI) —The Australian government donated another 40.000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Timor-Leste. These doses are for those communities in Dili municipality who have already received their first jab, said Executive Director of Timor-Leste’s Medical and Pharmaceutical Supply Agency (SAMES), Santana Martins told TATOLI, in Dili, today.

40.000-dose of AstraZeneca vaccine from Australia has arrived in Timor-Leste (TL), today, by the Australian Commercial Air Qantas.

Apart from the vaccines, Australia also supported 30.000 syringes which would be used to administer the second doses of the vaccines for communities in Dili.

Martins said the 40.000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be launched on friday (09/07).

Martins added, in total, the Australian government has donated 175.000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to TL.

So far, Timor-Leste has received a total of 399.000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, which is made up of 175.000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine given by the Australian Government, 124.800 from the COVAX Facility, and 100.000 Sinovac vaccines given by the Chinese Government.

There has been a total of 9.657 lab-confirmed cases of the virus in Timor-Leste, with 8.728 recoveries, active cases were 904 and 25 deaths, according to data of the CIGC.

In Timor-Leste, of the 754.864 eligible groups, 222.138 (29.4 %) had received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Of the number, around 26.464 (3.51 %) have also received their second dose of the vaccine.

Journalist: Filomeno Martins

Editor: Rafy Belo