The country s fragile healthcare system is under huge strain.
During a news conference today, Morrison said the doses - from Australia s own stocks - would be used to vaccinate health workers.
He also said he had lodged a request with AstraZeneca and the European Union to access one million of the country s contracted doses, not for Australia, but for PNG, a developing country in desperate need of these vaccines .
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison
Photo: Kiyoshi Ota / POOL / AFP
It was unclear when these vaccines would be delivered.
Infectious diseases expert Sanjaya Senanayake, from the Australian National University, told the BBC Australia s 8000 doses would prove helpful, even though it could only protect 4000 people.
BBC News
Published
image captionPapua New Guinea s health system is under immense pressure from the virus
Australia is to provide 8,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Papua New Guinea as the island nation struggles with an outbreak of coronavirus.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the doses would be sent immediately, along with other critical care equipment.
Papua New Guinea s fragile healthcare system is under huge strain.
Officially, there are 1,400 active cases in the country, but the true number is thought to be much higher.
Testing has been an issue for the island nation. As of 10 March, only 50,000 tests had been carried out in a country with a population of nine million.
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Michael Kabuni
15 March, 2021, 7:00 pm
Donations to Port Moresby
General Hospital delivered by Police Commissioner David Manning after a public appeal. Picture: Facebook/POMGH
A YEAR after the first COVID-19 case was reported in Papua New Guinea, the first week of March 2021 has seen the highest weekly increase in reported cases in the country.
This blog summarises the situation in PNG, and the risks that lie ahead in tackling the outbreak. The situation
According to PNG’s Health Situation Report #63, between March 1-7, 2021, 357 new COVID-19 cases were reported, bringing the total to 1670 cases so far.
This is the highest number of cases reported in a single week in PNG since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.