"We intend to launch this week a tender procedure for Valneva," Gallina said in a hearing in the EU Parliament, confirming a Reuters report from Monday.
The Australian premier has for weeks said that mass-vaccination efforts in Britain, the United States and elsewhere would provide Australia with more data about the safety of the vaccines than clinical trails could.
COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the health ministry has purchased nine large minus 80 degree Celsius freezers that can store more than 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.