Australia has secured 20 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to be delivered by the end of the year, with a spokesman for Health minister Greg Hunt stating on Sunday that this was the result of government negotiations conducted with Pfizer Australia.

There were reports that Australia had bungled negotiations with the company in talks going back to June and July 2020, displaying a “rude, dismissive and penny pinching approach”, says one source.

A deal was eventually signed for 10 million Pfizer doses in November 2020, months behind other countries.

On Thursday, following criticism from state governments concerning shortages of the vaccine supply amid the Delta variant outbreak, Mr Morrison announced there would be an additional 330,000 doses of vaccines, 150,000 from Pfizer, to be made available to NSW.

The ABC reports that a senior Australian businessman, who wishes to remain anonymous, held two meetings with senior Pfizer executives in late June, only to be rebuffed.

Senior Pfizer executives told the businessman that if Australia was to make a more serious effort, after its treatment at the hands of relatively junior bureaucrats, it would have to come from much higher up, expressing their astonishment that Australia’s Prime Minister had not directly spoken to the Pfizer chairman and chief executive Albert Bourla, as had been the cases with other officials.

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd was suggested to have some influence.

The network of businessmen contacted Mr Rudd and set up an introduction to Dr Bourla, a Greek veterinarian who is chairman of Prizer, via a Zoom meeting on 30 June. Mr Rudd sent a text a message to Mr Morrison to tell him he was going to make the call, making clear he would be representing himself as a concerned Australian and not in any way as an emissary from the government.

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Mr Rudd said he had congratulated Dr Bourla on Pfizer’s success in producing the world-class vaccine and discussed various challenges and political pressures it faced around the world.

“I also used the call as an opportunity to ask Dr Bourla whether there was any possible way, given Pfizer’s current international contractual obligations, to advance the dispatch of significant quantities of the Pfizer vaccine to Australia as early as possible in the third quarter this year,” Mr Rudd told Mr Morrison in the letter published by the ABC.

“Dr Bourla indicated that they had limited flexibility because of their existing supply obligations around the world. Nonetheless, he also indicated that a number of their manufacturing facilities were producing ahead of schedule. In response to my representations, Dr Bourla said he would personally look at “what further might be able to be done. I thanked Dr Bourla for that.

“Dr Bourla indicated that, if it became physically possible to bring forward delivery, he would require a further formal contractual request from the Australian government to that effect. I replied that that was understandable. I added, of course, that would be a matter for the Australian government and that I would pass this on to you,” the letter stated.

“Speaking on my own initiative, I floated the possibility of Australia perhaps seeking a large-scale advance order of Pfizer’s 2022 vaccine ‘booster’ which, from what I have read, is still under development.

“I speculated that it might perhaps be possible for the Australian government to consider a commercial offer for the 2022 booster that would also incorporate a bringing-forward of the current order for the 2021 vaccine into the early part of the third quarter of this year.

“Once again, I emphasised to Dr Bourla that this was speculation on my own part, rather than me acting in any way on behalf of the Australian government.

“As Dr Bourla lives in New York, we also agreed to catch up when I return there later this year.”

READ MORE: Greeks on the frontline of finding a COVID-19 vaccine

Increased cases and border closures

Victoria’s border has shut to NSW and the ACT and could remain closed for weeks as COVID figures are tipped to surpass 100 on Monday following 77 cases recorded on Sunday.

The state also recorded its first coronavirus-related death for 2021, a 90-year-old unvaccinated Sydney woman who was the close contact of another locally acquired case.

NSW Health late on Sunday updated multiple new exposure sites, including a number of medical centres and pharmacies. There were multiple new sites in Fairfield, Fairfield Heights and a Kogarah fish shop.

Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews has urged anyone returning from NSW to Victoria to get tested and self-isolate for 14 days, and those who do not will face fines of up to $5,000.

“We do not want this virus here in our state and everyone has a part to play in protecting our Victorian community,’’ Mr Andrews said. “If you do the wrong thing you will be found, you will be fined and you have every chance of becoming very, very famous.”

There is confusion at the border between NSW and Victoria as questions were raised about whether Victoria’s permit system could cope with the demand.