EU will hit Q1 Covid-19 vaccination goals, Commission says

Pfizer's ramp-up in production of its Covid-19 vaccine will allow the European Union to meet its vaccination goals in the first quarter, a top European official said.

The extra jabs from the US drug giant will offset the lower than expected shipments from AstraZeneca of its own shots.

On Saturday, Thierry Breton, the bloc's industry commissioner, told broadcaster Europe 1: "The good news is that even though there are delays with AstraZeneca we won’t be late with our vaccination programme in the first quarter.

"Pfizer is producing more, much more than planned and is going to deliver more to us."

The day before Breton made the remarks, AstraZeneca announced that it would try to deliver 30m vaccine doses by the end of the first quarter, which was now just a fortnight away.

That was down from the 40m doses it had guided towards in February and the 90m that it was contractually obliged to deliver.

Reuters further reported that AstraZeneca's lower supply target hinged on receipt of regulatory approval from the EU for a factory in the Netherlands.