Ramp it up! 60m more doses to be made here

Deal after EU threat to exports

BRITAIN is to massively ramp up its vaccine production following EU threats to supplies.

Up to 60 million doses of the new Novavax vaccine will be produced in the North East of England.

Ministers had already put plans in place to manufacture the vaccine at Billingham, County Durham. Under a new deal with GlaxoSmithKline, the vaccine will now be ‘finished and filled’ at a site in nearby Barnard Castle.

The town hit the news last year as the destination for a lockdown-busting car trip by then adviser to the PM Dominic Cummings ‘to test his eyesight’.

Boris Johnson said the new deal would provide ‘a significant new weapon in our armoury against Covid’. Without it, the vaccine might have had to be sent abroad for the ‘fill and finish’ process in which the raw vaccine is transferred into vials for distribution.

Last week, the European Commission approved extraordinary new powers that would allow it to block the exports of Covid jabs to countries such as the UK with higher vaccination rates.

EU leaders backed away from immediate use of the powers, but a compromise deal which could see the UK share some vaccines produced at an AstraZeneca plant in the Netherlands has not yet been finalised. The EU’s powerful internal market commissioner Thierry Breton yesterday said the UK was ‘dependent’ on Europe for vaccine supplies.

‘The British are incapable of carrying out the vaccine policy alone,’ he said. ‘Britain had to produce today only 10million vaccines. We have delivered 20million doses to help the British. They are totally dependent on us.’

Mr Breton claimed the UK could have a ‘problem’ delivering second doses of the Pfizer vaccine, all of which are produced in Belgium.

The PM last night insisted Britain would have enough supplies to provide all second doses. But a government source acknowledged that concern about export bans was driving ministers to seek more domestic capacity.

Ministers are also trying to unlock five million doses from India, which appear to have been blocked from export to the UK at the request of the Indian government. Millions of doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine are already produced in the UK. The new Valneva vaccine is also due to be manufactured in Scotland.

The Novavax vaccine is yet to be approved, but ministers hope supplies will come on stream later this year.

Britain will not donate Covid vaccines to Ireland or other EU states until all adults in the UK have been offered the jab, Downing Street said yesterday.

Reports at the weekend suggested ministers were ready to offer Dublin 3.7 million doses to help speed up the lifting of lockdown on the island of Ireland.

The idea was welcomed by Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster. But No10 yesterday played down the prospect of an early shipment across the Irish Sea.

The PM’s spokesman said: ‘Our first priority is to protect the British public. We hope to offer the vaccine to all over50s by mid-April and all adults by the end of July. We do not currently have a surplus of vaccines.’ A government source said ministers ‘expect to be able to identify any surplus later this year’.

The news came yesterday as the stay-at-home order ended in England.

Groups of up to six people – or two households – are allowed to socialise in parks and gardens again.

Outdoor sports facilities can also now reopen and weddings may take place, in line with the returning rule of six.

‘Priority is the British public’