AstraZeneca to miss EU COVID vaccine delivery target in second quarter
LONDON: The European Union is facing another hold-up in deliveries of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine.
Representatives of the pharmaceutical company have apprised the European Union of possible production shortages for the second quarter, company representatives and EU officials told news agencies on Tuesday.
The vaccine manufacturer said it would only be able to deliver half the COVID-19 vaccines it was contracted to supply the EU in the second quarter, an EU representative said.
Media reports suggested that second-quarter deliveries were being slashed from 180 million to 90 million doses.
This comes weeks after AstraZeneca had announced a drastic cut in the number of shots it would supply to the bloc in the first quarter.
The shortfall could hamper the EU’s plans to meet its goal of vaccinating 70% of adults by late summer.
What has AstraZeneca said?
A spokesperson of the BritishSwedish company said that AstraZeneca is constantly revising the delivery schedules and informing the commission on a weekly basis.
She said that they are working “incredibly hard” to improve the supply chain in the EU and also to leverage the global supply chain.
“We are hopeful that we will be able to bring our deliveries closer to [the agreements] in the purchase contract,” news agency dpa quoted the spokesperson as saying.
Slow deliveries hampering vaccine drives
The EU has also seen bottlenecks in the deliveries of the shots developed by BioNtech-Pfizer and Moderna — the only other shots currently approved by the EU’s drug regulator. AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine received EU authorization in late January, while some states of the 27-member bloc are using the vaccines developed in Russia and China.
A German health ministry document from February 22 reportedly shows that AstraZeneca expects to make up all of the shortfalls in supply by the end of September.
The document reportedly suggests that Germany expects to receive 34 million doses in the third quarter, boosting the total to 56 million shots, which is in tune with its full share of the 300 million doses AstraZeneca is contracted to supply to the EU.
GENEVA: The COVID-19 pandemic has refocused IT spending priorities for airlines and airports in 2020 as revenue plunged and the industry faced new health and operational requirements needed to keep flying.
Among the key findings from SITA’s 2020 Air Transport IT Insights, published, was an accelerated investment in automated passenger processing focusing on touchless and mobile services. There was also a strong focus on virtual and remote IT services that allowed employees to work from home while ramping up communications with passengers. Cybersecurity and cloud services – that helped automate operations and drive new efficiencies – were key.
In 2020, SITA data showed that flight volumes plunged 44 per cent year-on-year due to the pandemic. As a result of this impact on demand, IATA forecast the airline industry’s full-year loss at $118 billion.
David Lavorel, CEO SITA at Airports & Borders, said, “The severe slowdown in 2020 forced the air transport industry to focus on driving new cost efficiencies. Adding to the pressure, airlines and airports had to rapidly incorporate new health measures such as touchless passenger processing and the handling of new health information and protocols, including PCR testing in many destinations. These efforts have
been made in a market that continues to face rapid changes in air travel regulations that make operational planning volatile and last minute.
“To solve these challenges, the industry has turned to technology and, in many cases, reprioritised where they invested in 2020. The good news is that airlines and airports were able to capitalise on existing trends to automation and have made significant strides in implementing new solutions that will bring new improvements for the passenger now and into the future.”
Making the check-in process completely touchless is now the main priority for airports and airlines to help protect passengers
and staff, improve the passenger experience, and drive efficiency.
Biometric technology is the focus for airport investment with 64 per cent of airports aiming to roll out self-boarding gates using biometric & ID documentation by 2023, three times as many as in 2020. Airlines have doubled implementations and plan to double investment for self-boarding using biometric & ID documentation by 2023 (82 per cent).
Similarly, airlines are prioritising a completely touchless checkin process, and most want mobile touchless payment options for all services provided. The majority (79 per cent), is focused on enabling self-bag drop for passengers.