Countries tighten borders against virus

Paris – A number of countries tightened their borders against a surge in variant strains of the deadly coronavirus as the United States on Saturday ordered travellers to wear masks on most public transport.

With doses of the different Covid-19 jabs so far approved for use still in relatively short supply, Britain and the European Union (EU) have become embroiled in a row over the shots they had been promised by drugmaker AstraZeneca.

The jab developed by the British-Swedish firm is only the third to be rolled out in Europe. But the company has said it can only deliver a fraction of the doses promised to the Brussels and London because of production problems.

As the World Health Organisation warned against “vaccine nationalism”, Britain and EU said on Saturday they were confident the problems could be resolved.

Nevertheless, tensions on either side of the English Channel showed scant sign of easing.

France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune warned that it would pose “a problem” if the UK were given preferential treatment.

“If there is an industrial problem, people can understand that,” he said. “But preferential treatment is shown to Britain, that would be a problem.”

British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab warned that “the world is watching and it is only through international collaboration that we will beat this pandemic”.

Nevertheless, Raab said he had been “reassured” in talks with EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovkis that Brussels “has no desire to block suppliers fulfilling contracts for vaccine distribution to the UK”. –