Variant OMICRON: delivery of vaccines in EU accelerated by European Commission

The European Executive announced on Sunday an agreement with the Biontech and Pfizer groups to deliver 20 million additional doses of their VVID-19 vaccine.

Le Monde

The European Commission announced Sunday 19 December an agreement with the Biontech and Pfizer groups to deliver 20 million additional doses of their COVID vaccine to the Member States in the first half of 2022 to facilitate vaccination campaigns.

The Brussels Executive has further enabled a “first option to order more than 200 million doses as part of the third contract with Biontech-Pfizer”. “This command also covers vaccines adapted to the OMICRON variant, if these vaccines become available,” the Commission explained. Deliveries should take place from the second quarter 2022, she said.

An agreement has also been found with the Moderna group for the delivery of additional doses during the first quarter of 2022, added the press release. “This will be particularly useful for Member States with a short-term need for additional vaccine doses,” the Commission explained.

Israel places several European countries on the red list

The Israeli government has banned its citizens on Sunday to visit several European countries (among which France) placed on the red list, and the United States could be added, in order to prevent the propagation of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19.

These traffic restrictions abroad, which already concerned most African countries as well as the United Kingdom and Denmark, also now apply to Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and also the United Arab Emirates.

The Israeli Ministry has also recommended adding to this red list the United States, despite hundreds of thousands of binationals, as well as Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Morocco , Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.

/Media reports.