Of the nearly 450 million EU citizens, 62 million have now been vaccinated at least once against the coronavirus. 18.2 million people have received their second dose.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the figures today at the EU summit. The EU countries have received around 88 million vaccine doses from the pharmaceutical companies so far. At the same time, 77 million doses have been exported from the EU since December 1.
Of the exports, the U.K. alone received 21 million doses, including one million from manufacturer AstraZeneca and the rest from Biontech and Pfizer, according to supplementary information from EU circles. The export figures are said to prove that the EU has contributed a lot to the supply of other countries. But export controls have been in place since Feb. 1 and were tightened yesterday.
360 million vaccine doses in second quarter
In the first quarter through the end of March, von der Leyen’s figures show the EU expects to receive about 100 million doses of vaccines, 66 million of them from Biontech and Pfizer alone. U.S. manufacturer Moderna is in the mix for ten million vaccine doses. AstraZeneca is expected to contribute 30 million doses – although the British-Swedish manufacturer had originally pledged 120 million doses. According to the Commission, AstraZeneca is also far from the 30 million.
For the second quarter, EU manufacturers have pledged 360 million doses of vaccine, according to the figures. Of those, 200 million are expected to come from Biontech and Pfizer, 35 million from Moderna and 70 million from AstraZeneca. Included are the first 55 million doses from U.S. manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, whose vaccine, unlike the others, only needs to be administered once.
— source: orf.at/picture: pixabay.com
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