Sign up here for our daily coronavirus newsletter on what you need to know, and subscribe to our Covid-19 podcast for the latest news and analysis.
AstraZeneca Plc’s coronavirus vaccine finally arrives in European Union countries as the bloc seeks to speed up its vaccination campaign and crisis-ridden period behind it.
France will use it from Saturday, with a priority for healthcare workers, after the first batch arrived Friday evening. Germany, Ireland, Spain and Austria will also start offering the shot, while Portugal will receive deliveries early next week.
The doses are mostly trucked through hubs across the continent, and their arrival is a welcome development for the EU, which has spent the past few weeks in a public row with Astra over vaccine targets. That eventually resulted in a back-and-forth blame game, threats of protectionism and massive political mistakes threatening the UK-EU Brexit deal.
Even as the rollout improves, governments remain concerned about delays as thousands still die every day. They also stick to lockdowns to control the spread of the virus, especially when new variants emerge.
Germany is likely to extend its Covid-19 restrictions for another two weeks when Chancellor Angela Merkel and state leaders meet next week, people familiar with the discussions say. Greece on Friday tightened restrictions on traffic and shopping.
According to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, the EU’s vaccination progress so far lags far behind the UK and US.
Despite the slow start, the European Commission is sticking to its plan to vaccinate 70% of the adult population by the end of the summer. It expects the pace to pick up rapidly in the coming months, with deliveries of at least 300 million doses in the second quarter.
Amid ongoing concerns about delays, a group of EU leaders urged European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen to quickly conclude talks with other vaccine developers, such as Novovax and Valneva. They also pointed out the risks surrounding Johnson & Johnson’s decision to ship vaccines to the US for packaging.
The J&J product “could be a potential game changer because of its easier storage and transportation and the requirement of just one dose,” the leaders said in the letter obtained by Bloomberg.
Astra’s shot is the third to be approved by the EU drug regulator. It approved the vaccine from BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. in December well, and that of Moderna Inc. last month.
Many countries have been wary of the Astra shot, recommending it only for people under 65. But governments are still counting on it to speed up vaccination efforts.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Friday that the country will double vaccinations in February from what would have been possible with just Pfizer and Moderna. The Astra image will initially be mainly applied to health workers deprecated 64 years and younger, which allows those over 65 to be vaccinated more quickly with the other two.
Austria is also expanding. In Vienna, the extra supply means that the city will be able to administer 28,600 doses next week, twice as many as in the week of February 1.
While governments seek to break the vaccine debacle, they also want to prevent the high-profile blunders from undermining public confidence. Spahn highlighted that point Friday, saying all approved products are equally good for children under 65.
“With all three vaccines, we have effective tools to fight this pandemic,” he said in Berlin. “We hope and expect more to follow soon. “
– Assisted by Iain Rogers, Geraldine Amiel, Boris Groendahl, Joao Lima, Henrique Almeida, Nikos Chrysoloras, Paul Tugwell, Ellen Proper and Sotiris Nikas