German Health Minister Jens Spahn on Tuesday joined EU calls for export controls on coronavirus vaccines amid discontent over a delay in rolling out pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca s jab to member countries.
Spahn said he was in favour of vaccines leaving the EU needing a licence, so that we at least know what is being produced, what is leaving Europe and if it is leaving Europe, whether there is then a fair distribution .
Delays were understandable due to the complexity of the manufacturing process, he told the ZDF broadcaster, but they must affect everyone fairly and equally .
Last Friday, British-Swedish company AstraZeneca said it would not meet its contractual delivery commitments to the European Union because of unexplained reduced yields in its European supply chain.
Dutch police arrest more than 180 after third night of violent anti-curfew protests
From CNN’s Mick Krever in London
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in Rotterdam on January 25, after a wave of riots in the Netherlands in response to a coronavirus curfew introduced over the weekend. Marco de Swart/ANP/AFP/Getty Images
Police in the Netherlands arrested 184 rioters nationwide on Monday night, according to the country s national broadcaster NOS.
Some of the fiercest clashes with police were in Rotterdam, where officers said 50 arrests were made. Police said in a statement Tuesday that a group of youths started gathering in south Rotterdam around 7:30 p.m. on Monday, and eventually totaled several hundred.
Europe dials down threat to block vaccine exports, but tempers fray
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London | Brussels is trying to reduce the heat in its ugly spat with COVID-19 vaccine makers AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech, saying the EU wants to closely monitor vaccine exports from European factories, rather than block them.
But European leaders still lobbed threats and accusations at the companies on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), charging them with mercenary behaviour and reneging on contracts.
The EU does not trust AstraZenecaâs explanation for supply shortfalls in Europe.Â
Bloomberg
The row that erupted on Monday had looked set to plunge Europe into an unedifying spat of vaccine nationalism.
Global Cases Top 100 Million; N.J. May Relax Curbs: Virus Update Bloomberg 1/26/2021 Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) Global coronavirus cases surpassed 100 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, marking another grim milestone in the pandemic.
New York City said it would miss its goal of administering 1 million vaccine shots by the end of January, and Mayor Bill de Blasio appealed to the Biden administration for more doses.
Pfizer Inc. will be able to supply the U.S. with 200 million Covid-19 vaccine doses two months sooner than previously forecast, according to its top executive. European Medicines Agency Executive Director Emer Cooke signaled Pfizer is gearing up to increase deliveries to EU countries.
Angry E.U. looks to restrict vaccine exports as supply shortage hits slow rollout Yuliya Talmazan and Vivi Vitalone and Andy Eckardt
LONDON The European Union has threatened to restrict the export of Covid-19 vaccines made in the bloc amid growing anger at the slow rollout of immunizations.
“E.U. member states are united: Vaccine developers have societal and contractual responsibilities they need to uphold,” health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said late Monday after two tense negotiating sessions with representatives of vaccine maker AstraZeneca, in which the commissioner said insufficient explanations were provided.
AstraZeneca took E.U. officials by surprise last week when it announced its initial delivery volumes of the Covid-19 vaccine, developed in collaboration with U.K. s Oxford University, would be lower than originally anticipated because of manufacturing issues in Europe. The company did not say how much lower the volumes will be.