The new target of 40 million doses by the end of March is still only half what the British/Swedish company had originally aimed for, triggering a spat between AstraZeneca and the EU last week.
Speaking after a call with seven vaccine makers on Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that AstraZeneca would also begin deliveries one week sooner than scheduled and expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe .
Ms Von der Leyen, who has come under intense pressure over the European Commission’s handling of the vaccine orders in recent days, tweeted: “Step forward on vaccines.”
The EU is far behind Britain and the United States in getting its population of 450 million vaccinated against the virus.
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31 January 2021
Riot police detain a man during a rally in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the far eastern city of Vladivostok
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30 January 2021
A farmer holds onto his walking stick as he takes part in a protest against the central government’s recent agricultural reforms at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh state border in Ghazipur, India
AFP via Getty
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29 January 2021
People queue to refill their empty oxygen cylinders in Callao, Peru. Relatives of people with COVID-19 are desperate for oxygen to keep their loves ones alive in Peru, where patients have been dying for lack of oxygen
AFP via Getty Images
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28 January 2021
Lebanese anti-government protesters burn garbage as they go around the homes of deputies and government officials in the northern port city of Tripoli to protest the economic situation and their role in leading the country to crisis
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27 January 2021
People sled down a public trail in Zurich
Reuters
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26 January 2021
A farmer holds a sword during a protest against farm laws introduced by the government, at the historic Red Fort in Delhi, India
Reuters
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25 January 2021
Visitors stroll through early-blooming rapeseed blossoms at Azumayama Park with Mount Fuji in the background, west of Tokyo
EPA
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24 January 2021
Rescue workers help a miner as he is brought to the surface at the Hushan gold mine after the 10 January explosion trapped workers underground, in Qixia, Shandong province, China
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23 January 2021
Law enforcement officers detain a woman during a rally in support of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow, Russia
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22 January 2021
People line up to get their nucleic acid test following the outbreak of coronavirus in Beijing, China
Reuters
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21 January 2021
Activists of the Nepalese Communist party and riot police scuffle during torch protest against the Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli in Kathmandu, Nepal. Hundreds of student activists of Nepal’s communist party staged the torch rally demonstration against the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli government’s move of dissolving the House of Representatives
EPA
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20 January 2021
Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Jill Biden holds the Bible during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington
AP
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19 January 2021
People help a woman to take a bath in the icy waters of a frozen lake during the celebration of the Epiphany holiday near the the village of Leninskoe
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18 January 2021
A man works in the UNESCO-listed Lavaux vineyards overlooking Lake Leman after a snowfall on a winter day in Riex, Switzerland
Reuters
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17 December 2021
A still image taken from video footage shows law enforcement officers speaking with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny before leading him away at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, Russia
Reuters
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16 January 2021
Thai police arrest an anti-government protester attending a rally at the Victory Monument in Bangkok, Thailand
EPA
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15 January 2021
A man on skis crosses a street in Zurich, Switzerland
Reuters
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14 January 2021
Camels in the desert between Alula and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia during the Stage 11 of the Dakar Rally
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13 January 2021
Students wearing traditional Punjabi outfits perform a folk dance to celebrate Lohri, the spring festival, in Amritsar
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12 January 2021
Georgia’s Tato Grigalashvili (white) and Netherlands’ Frank De Wit fight during the men’s under 81kg category of the World Judo Masters in the Qatari capital Doha
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11 January 2021
A car submerged on a flooded street in the town of Fushe Kosove after heavy rain and snow showers in Kosovo
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10 January 2021
Indonesian Navy personnel carry debris believed to be from the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 plane, which crashed into the sea, off the Jakarta coast
Reuters
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9 January 2021
Two friends spend some time at a self-made terrace in Callao Street during the snowfall in Madrid, Spain. Storm Filomena brought the heaviest snowfall in decades
EPA
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8 January 2021
A woman throws hot water into the air, which instantly condenses into ice crystals amid temperatures of minus 27 degrees Celsius, in Shenyang in northeastern China’s Liaoning province
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7 January 2021
France’s biker Pasca Rauber rests at the foot of a truck during the Stage 5 of the Dakar Rally 2021 between Riyadh and Buraydah in Saudi Arabia, on January 7, 2021
AFP via Getty Images
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6 January 2021
Believers burn dried oak branches, which symbolise the Yule log, on Orthodox Christmas Eve in front of the Saint Sava temple in Belgrade, Serbia
Reuters
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5 January 2021
A man carries bricks in a brickfield in Saver on the outskirts of Dhaka
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4 January 2021
Biker Walter Roelants rides during Stage 2 of the Dakar Rally 2021 between Bisha and Wadi Ad-Dawasir in Saudi Arabia
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3 January 2021
A snowman stands in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany
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2 January 2021
French Gendarmes speak to a youth sitting in the back of a van in a panda suit following the break up of a party near a disused hangar in Lieuron, about 40km south of Rennes
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1 January 2021
Fireworks from the SkyTower during Auckland New Year’s Eve celebrations in New Zealand
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31 December 2020
The full moon shines behind the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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30 December 2020
People run following an explosion at the airport in Aden, Yemen, shortly after a plane carrying the newly formed Cabinet landed
AP
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29 December 2020
Croatian soldiers and people clean rubble next to damaged buildings in Petrinja after the town was hit by an earthquake of the magnitude of 6.4
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28 December 2020
Helpers prepare the hill ahead the training jump of the Four-Hills Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee) in Oberstdorf, southern Germany
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27 December 2020
A man sits next to a snowman after first snowfalls in Landi Kotal
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26 December 2020
Workers carving a snow sculpture of an ox in Shenyang, in northeastern Liaoning province
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25 December 2020
A large explosion ripped through part of downtown Nashville early on Christmas morning
Nashville Fire Department
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24 December 2020
A surfer wipes out at Pipeline on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii
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23 December 2020
A scuba diver dressed as Santa Claus feeds fish during a performance show at Aquaria KLCC aquarium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
AP
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22 December 2020
People dressed in Santa Claus costumes play volleyball at a beach in Tel Aviv, Israel
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21 December 2020
A man dressed as a Santa Claus waves to a child as he descends from the roof of the paediatric clinic in Ljubljana, Slovenia
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20 December 2020
Aerial view of an empty Dam Square with Christmas tree in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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19 December 2020
A demonstrator gives the victory sign during a protest, in Khartoum, Sudan. Protests in Sudan’s capital and across the country are demanding a faster pace to democratic reforms, in demonstrations that are marking the two-year anniversary of the uprising that led to the military’s ousting of strongman Omar al-Bashir
AP
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18 December 2020
A child wraps himself in a blanket while gathering at the Government House with other students from the Government Science Secondary school, in Kankara, in northwestern Katsina State, Nigeria upon their release. More than 300 Nigerian schoolboys were released on Thursday after being abducted in an attack claimed by Boko Haram, officials said, although it was unclear if any more remained with their captors
AFP via Getty Images
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17 December 2020
Children stand together holding hands in circles in a rainwater pond at the flooded “Mukhayyam al-Khair” camp near the village of Kafr Uruq in the north of Idlib province, housing Syrians displaced from Saraqib and Maaret al-Numan following heavy rain in the previous days
AFP via Getty Images
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16 December 2020
Shuhei Okawara, 30, owner of mask shop Kamenya Omote, holds a super-realistic face mask based on his real face, made by using 3D printing technology, in Tokyo, Japan
Reuters
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15 December 2020
The light installation “Ray of Hope” illuminates the Bellevue Palace, the seat of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in Berlin, Germany. People could submit their personal message, which then will be part of the light projection, where Steinmeier would like to send a sign of encouragement and solidarity at the end of this special year shaped by the coronavirus pandemic. The message reads “Respect”
Reuters
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14 December 2020
A Nihang (Sikh warrior) kisses his horse at the site of a protest against the newly passed farm bills at Singhu border near New Delhi, India
Reuters
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13 December 2020
People watch their home burns at an informal settlement in Germiston, near Johannesburg, South Africa. The fire ripped through the neighbourhood and destroyed three homes
AP
The slow rollout has been blamed on a range of national problems as well as delayed approval of the vaccines compared to elsewhere and an initial shortage of supply.
The announcement last week that AstraZeneca would initially only supply 31 million doses to the EU’s 27 member states due to production problems triggered a fierce dispute between the two sides, with officials in Brussels saying they feared the company was treating the bloc unfairly compared to other customers, such as the United Kingdom.
On Friday, hours after regulators authorised the vaccine for use across the EU, the commission announced that it was tightening rules on exports of Covid-19 vaccines, sparking an angry response from Britain.
The commission has since made clear that the new measure will not trigger controls on vaccines shipments produced in the 27-nation bloc to Northern Ireland.
Under the post-Brexit deal, EU products should still be able to travel unhindered from the bloc to the region.
EU member states praised the bloc’s executive branch last year for signing numerous deals with vaccine makers, saying the joint purchase using combined market weight of the entire bloc had ensured a fair distribution for all 27 countries at good prices.
In a statement, the European Commission said it planned to set up a specialised body to improve the bloc’s response to health emergency and “deliver a more structured approach to pandemic preparedness”.
As part of the effort, together with industry, the EU said it would “fund design and development of vaccines and scale-up manufacturing in the short and medium-term, and also to target the variants of Covid-19.”
“The pandemic highlighted that manufacturing capacities are a limiting factor,” it said. “It is essential to address these challenges.”