Interestingly enough it was organised by China and, as you would expect, the World Health Organisation's Director-General addressed delegates.

It involved 30 parties, the South China Morning Post explained, including international organisations, such as the United Nations, vaccine developers and foreign ministers from other countries (though the Chinese foreign ministry didn't exactly name any of those countries).

Beijing insisted it would not use the battle against COVID-19 as a "tool for political self-interest" nor would the conference be used as an excuse to attack other countries.

WHO boss, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, lauded the scientific achievement of vaccine development but also spoke to what he called "the shocking imbalance in the global distribution of vaccines".

"This has created a two-track pandemic, divided between the haves and the have-nots," he said.

"Over 4 billion vaccines have been administered globally, but more than 75% of those have gone to just 10 countries ...

"Vaccine inequity is not only a moral failure, it is also epidemiologically and economically self-defeating."

Meanwhile far from stricken third world countries, the vaccine rollout in regional Australia continues to be problematic.

A COVID-19 vaccine shortage is forcing one regional Victorian centre to slash appointments to it major jab hub.

Ballarat Health Services has cut walk-ins for AstraZeneca this weekend and has slashed appointments by 300 a day.

Regional centres the length and breadth of virus-hit NSW had their vaccines "redirected to Sydney" earlier this week.

Yesterday the PM announced that 185,000 doses would be sent to NSW to compensate for the lost doses as well as boost vaccination rates. The extra doses will arrive on August 9 and 16.

That announcement has been "welcomed" by all manner of pollies. Probably not as much as the locked down communities they serve though.

In other non-COVID news today, the man accused of raping former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins has been charged.

"Police will allege the man had sexual intercourse with a woman without consent at Parliament House on Saturday, 23 March 2019," ACT Policing said in a statement.

Just for perspective, that's the best part of a year before the pandemic hit Australia.

Did you know you can receive this daily digest by email? Sign up here

THE NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW: