EU tightens restrictions as it tries to ease vaccine crisis 

Global cases of COVID-19 reached 99.6 million today, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics, although the number of daily infections reported to the agency, 410,000, was the lowest in three months. 

The problems caused by the lack of sufficient vaccines and the EU's contracts with pharmaceutical companies have put the spotlight on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has come under fire recently amid a shortage of vaccines and a lot of domestic nervousness in member states, which are not even managing to administer all the vaccines they already have. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Twitter on Sunday that AstraZeneca would deliver 40 million doses of its vaccine to the EU in the first quarter. 

Von der Leyen will meet in Parliament this afternoon on the problems with the pharmaceutical companies and the COVID-19 vaccines, but behind closed doors and only with the leaders of some parliamentary groups to explain the EU's vaccination strategy. 

The EU has received 18.5 million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna and has administered at least one dose to more than 12 million people, according to data provided on Monday at a press conference by the EU's health spokesman, Stefan de Keersmaecker, and in the European Parliament by the Commission's Director General for Health, Sandra Gallina. 

Brussels also expects the two companies, whose vaccines are around 95% effective, to deliver 500 million doses to the European Union by October, which would mean drugs for around 67% of the EU's adult population, some 250 million of Europe's 370 million adults, out of a total population of approximately 448 million people. 

AstraZeneca "will start deliveries one week ahead of schedule" - "a priori the second week of February," a European source told Agence France-Presse - and "will also expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe," the European Commission president also wrote on Twitter. In an interview with German television station ZDF, she also maintained the EU's goal of vaccinating 70% of adults by "the end of the summer". 

This afternoon's meeting will be the fourth of the week following two unsatisfactory meetings last Monday, after the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's lab suddenly announced problems with initial deliveries to the EU on Friday. 

The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday demanded that the drugmaker respect its legal and "moral" commitments and find a solution to deliver the doses of its vaccine signed with the EU that it has announced it will not be able to supply on time.  

Brussels asked AstraZeneca to allow the confidential contract to be made public to show that the drugmaker had to produce a precise quantity of doses for the EU "even before obtaining authorisation" from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is expected to give its opinion this week on whether the drug, which is already distributed in the UK, is effective and safe.  

In particular, the Commission refers to the "production risk" clauses, which implies that, to avoid unexpected problems, the drugmaker should have produced a certain stockpile of vaccine and have a certain quantity available immediately after the EMA and the Commission authorised the vaccine.  

After a media-driven start to injections in most EU countries at the end of December, while the UK, US and Israel were already vaccinating in series, January turned out to be a fateful month for the EU: contagions on the rise and the EU-27 straddling a second and third wave, production cuts by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, and a public dispute between Brussels and AstraZeneca over contracts with the EC. 

The result, although details of the timing and quantities of deliveries signed are not known as the contracts with the pharmaceutical companies are confidential, is that the EU will apparently not have all the vaccines it was counting on in the first quarter, but the campaigns will move forward in the second quarter and there will be doses for the goal of vaccinating 70% of the population by the end of September 2021. 

EU ambassadors on Monday approved new restrictions for travellers from outside the EU, including the presentation of a negative PCR test, to combat the spread of new variants, according to EU sources. The EU closed its external borders in March 2020 and established a restricted list. 

Meanwhile, the EU is trying to solve the crisis caused by the lack of sufficient vaccines to effectively counter the disease, the incidence of which is on a very slight downward trend.  

The agreement reached by ambassadors on Monday is due to be adopted by member states on Tuesday. It sets new criteria for authorising non-essential travel to the EU: third countries of origin must have an incidence rate of less than or equal to 25 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days, a testing rate of more than 300 and a positivity rate of less than or equal to 4%, according to a document seen by AFP. 

A negative PCR test of less than 72 hours should be required for travellers, including essential travellers, with the exception of border or transport workers. EU citizens and residents will be able to take this test on arrival. 

In addition, Member States may require a quarantine of up to 14 days after arrival, as well as an additional test. These measures are necessary when the third country is affected by a variant.