Angela Merkel refuses Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine as 1.4m doses go unused in Germany.
The EU is still lagging far behind Israel, the US and UK in terms of people vaccinated, so EU leaders have vowed to speed up deliveries and sort out the bottlenecks. The 29m vaccinated so far is 6.4% of the EU’s population. The bloc has ordered more than 2bn doses, for a total population of about 450m. But it is also committed to sending vaccines to neighbouring non-EU countries.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said shortages of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine were down to the “very complex biological process that involves thousands of elements to track”. He told MEPs “we are working 24/7 to increase capacity and deliver on these commitments”
The AstraZeneca vaccine is not being given to the over-65s in France, Belgium and Germany. The authorities cite insufficient data on its effectiveness in the oldest age group. French President Emmanuel Macron has controversially voiced doubts about the vaccine, but on Thursday he said he would gladly have the AstraZeneca jab, if that was offered to him.
Dr Klaus Reinhardt, president of the German Medical Association, described the AstraZeneca vaccine as “just as effective” as the Pfizer and Moderna ones. However, more than a million AstraZeneca doses are currently in storage in Germany, as vaccination progress remains slow.
The Czech Republic is set to tighten restrictions again, amid a big surge in cases. The plan is to extend a state of emergency to the end of March, banning all but essential travel between regions and closing schools, reimposing distance learning. The European countries with the highest Covid deaths per million people are: Belgium (1,900), Czech Republic (1,850), Slovenia (1,830) and the UK (1,790).
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