Italy's AstraZeneca export ban likely to have 'minimal' impact on Australia's rollout

Victorian Liberal MP Katie Allen says the disruption to the vaccine rollout caused by Italy’s decision to block a shipment of AstraZeneca doses to Australia is likely to be “minimum”. Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the decision was made because Australia is not vulnerable, and AstraZeneca is not delivering enough supplies to Europe. “It’s always hard to tell, 250,000 is a lot of vaccine, but that being said we have many different choices and options,” Ms Allen told Sky News. “I would say the disruption is likely to be minimum when you look at the overall strategy and plan. “All of those sorts of different issues have been built into this plan, which is a very thorough plan, it’s got lots of different options in it. “I think Australians should be very reassured that of course there’s going to be difficulties, we knew that there would be, this is a global pandemic. “We need to be secure in the knowledge that we have a prime minster and minister for health who are working very hard and making extremely good business decisions about what is a very difficult situation internationally."