We’ve been bringing you the news that Denmark has become the first country to completely stop using the AstraZeneca vaccine over concerns of rare side effects.
Czech deputy PM Jan Hamacek tweeted that he has asked the Czech ambassador in Copenhagen to negotiate the purchase of all of Denmark’s unwanted AZ vaccines. That is about 2.4 million jabs.
“We are looking for vaccines all over the world. We are willing to buy AstraZeneca from Denmark. On Monday, I fly to Moscow, where I want to arrange possible deliveries of Sputnik V after its approval by the European Medicines Agency,” he said.
The Czech Republic, like several EU countries, says its vaccination effort is being hampered by insufficient supplies.
The country has registered 1.59 million infections, and more than 28,000 people have died.opyright: Reuters
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) says it is expediting a safety review of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine and hopes to issue its recommendations next week.
A number of countries have temporarily stopped using the jab, including the US and South Africa, after some extremely rare side effects of blood clotting.
Shipments to the European Union only started this week, and widespread use of the jab, which is also known as the Janssen vaccine, had not begun. J&J has paused future deliveries to the bloc.
In a statement, the EMA said it “remains of the view that the benefits of the vaccine in preventing Covid-19 outweigh the risks of side effects.” This opinion is shared by the World Health Organization.
The agency’s scientific opinions provide EU member states with the information they need to decide whether to include the vaccine as part of their inoculation programmes.
The Covid-19 pandemic is “far from over”, the World Health Organization’s special envoy on Covid-19 is warning.
Speaking at a Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh symposium, Dr David Nabarro says coronavirus is “surging forward” in most parts of the world and new variants will be a “regular” occurrence.
“The pandemic is nowhere near finished,” he says, adding coronavirus is “one of the fastest spreading viruses” he has ever worked with.
But he adds: “The doubling time (of infections) has slowed massively through the behaviours of people – though physical distance, masks, better hygiene and isolating to avoid transmission.”
On the lifting of restrictions in the UK and the success of the vaccination programme so far, Dr Nabarro says: “(Some say) this is an opportunity for the UK to emerge from the pandemic, well I say ‘perhaps’.
“I have to stress that I am not 100% sure that the world is going to find it easy to vaccinate itself out of this pandemic because the emergence of variants that are capable of escaping protection of current vaccines.”
