The European Union is doubling its order from Pfizer-BioNTech and buying an extra 300 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday.
"We make sure Europeans have sufficient doses of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines," she said on Twitter.
Specifically, the European Commission is proposing to EU Member States to buy an additional 200 million doses of the BioNTtech/Pifzer vaccine, with the option of a further 100 million.
We make sure Europeans have sufficient doses of safe & effective #COVID19 vaccines.
We now enable EU countries to buy more doses of the 1st vaccine approved in EU. They can now buy up to 300 million more doses of the #BioNTech/@Pfizer vaccine.https://t.co/vjZd0L17VL — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 8, 2021
On top of the 300 million doses already ordered, this means that the EU will have a total of 600 million doses from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was also the first one it approved for market authorisation.
The delivery of the first 75 million doses of the new order will happen in the first half of 2021, the rest will follow in the third and fourth quarters of the year.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called the extra order a "game-changer" on Twitter.
"Doubling the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines means that we can protect more people more quickly in our country too," he added.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
