EU to get 100 million vaccine doses per month from April

The EU expects to receive 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccines every month from April, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

This boost to Europe’s stuttering inoculation campaign comes thanks to higher delivery volumes promised by manufacturers, and “because more vaccines are about to be approved”, Ms von der Leyen told a German newspaper.

In Q2 2021, the EU will receive a total of around 100 million doses of COVID vaccines, to a total of 300 million by the end of June, she said.

Amongst the vaccines expecting imminent EU approval is that offered by Johnson and Johnson, which applied for approval in mid-February. This version of the vaccine is being celebrated as promising by many, due to the fact it only requires a single dose to be effective. 

As of 26th February, the EU, with its nearly 450 million people, had received less than 52 million vaccines. 

Frustration has grown in the bloc regarding its vaccine rollout, which has lagged behind that of many countries, such as Britain, Israel and the United States. 

This has also seen the building of some tension with the EU and nations including Australia and the UK over the failure of vaccine company AstraZeneca to deliver the promised number of doses to the bloc. 

In the first week of March, Italy blocked the export of 250,000 doses of the vaccine to Australia, in a move that the country’s Prime Minister said he could understand, considering Italy’s precarious situation and the grip of the virus there.

Despite the EU’s perceived failings, Malta’s vaccine rollout continues to roar ahead, doses being administered more than twice as fast as the EU average.