By Tony O’Riley-
The EU Commission may not renew its vaccine contracts next year with companies such as Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J), it has been announced.
The move was reported by Italian daily La Stampaon Wednesday, which cited a source from the Italian Health Ministry.
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“The European Commission in agreement with the leaders of many (EU) countries, has decided that the contracts with the companies that produce (viral vector) vaccines that are valid for the current year will not be renewed at their expiry,” the newspaper reported.
It added that Brussels would rather focus on Covid-19 vaccines using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, such as Pfizer’s and Moderna’s.
A spokesman for the EU Commission said it was keeping all options open to be prepared for the next stages of the pandemic, for 2022 and beyond.
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It comes as Denmark announced it would stop administering Oxford/AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine due to its possible link to very rare cases of blood clots, several Danish media outlets reported, citing unnamed sources.
The decision which would remove the shot from Denmark’s vaccination scheme, could delay the country’s vaccine rollout by up to four weeks, based on previous statements by health bodies.
The UK is still some way off from achieving herd immunity, latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
Scientific advisors, men, obese people, high-risk workers, and ethnic minorities should be targeted in the next phase of the vaccine rollout, government scientific advisors said on Tuesday.
The coroanvirus grant scheme which provides vital funds for food and bills to vulnerable households has been extended until June
Denmark has confirmed it will no longer offer the Oxford/AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to its citizens.
Meanwhile the EU has said it is will turn its focus towards BioNTech/Pfizer to make up for suspended Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses and for longer-term needs to fight the mutating coronavirus.
It follows warnings from the World Health Organization that the pandemic is accelerating globally, with new cases rising for the seventh consecutive week.
The EU is now expected its focus towards BioNTech/Pfizer to make up for suspended Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses and for longer-term needs to fight the mutating coronavirus, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday.
BioNTech/Pfizer is bringing forward delivery of 50 million doses to the second quarter, starting this month, and negotiations are under way with it to supply 1.8 billion doses of a second-generation of its mRNA vaccine to combat variants, she said in a televised statement.
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics suggests the UK is still a long way from herd immunity.
It also showed that some 54.9 per cent of people in England had antibodies in England in the week ending March 28 —unchanged from two weeks earlier.
In terms of antibodies, People aged 65 to 69 had the highest level of detectable antibodies at 84.5 per cent, suggesting that the effect is most visible in people a few weeks after vaccination.
The lowest levels of antibodies were found to b in people aged 16 to 24, at 38.7 per cent, where previous infection with Covid is likely to play a significant role.
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