Europe’s fight to secure COVID-19 vaccine supplies intensified today when the European Union warned drug companies such as AstraZeneca that it would use all legal means or even block exports unless they agreed to deliver shots as promised.
The EU, whose member states are far behind Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States in rolling out vaccines, is scrambling to get supplies just as the West’s biggest drugmakers slow deliveries to the bloc due to production problems.
As vaccination centres in Germany, France and Spain cancelled or delayed appointments, the EU publicly rebuked Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca for failing to deliver and even asked if it could divert supplies from Britain.
Scottish nationalist attempts to force a change to the United Kingdom's constitution are a massive distraction while the government battles the COVID-19 outbreak, British Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove said.
Updated / Thursday, 28 Jan 2021
20:26
The European Medicines Agency is expected to make a decision on whether to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine tomorrow
AstraZeneca s Covid-19 vaccine should only be given to people aged between 18 and 64, Germany s vaccine committee STIKO has said in a draft update to its vaccine recommendation. There are currently insufficient data available to assess the vaccine efficacy from 65 years of age, the committee said in the resolution made available by the German health ministry. The AstraZeneca vaccine, unlike the mRNA vaccines, should only be offered to people aged 18-64 years at each stage.
The European Medicines Agency is expected to make a decision on whether to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine tomorrow.
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Sputnik International
Governor Martyn Roper gets his second shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday morning. - Photo: GIS
Hours before Cayman’s second batch of COVID-19 vaccines was due to arrive at Owen Roberts International Airport on Thursday, the Governor’s Office said it was hopeful that the future supply of vaccines would not be disrupted by an ongoing row between the European Union and the UK over distribution of the inoculations.
In a statement issued to the
Cayman Compass in response to queries about the potential impact the EU’s threats to stop exports of the vaccines could have on Cayman, the Governor’s Office said, “The UK takes seriously its responsibilities to the overseas territories and has committed to supply us with a proportionate share of the vaccines that it procures.