Oxford jab delivery hold-up disrupts EU bid to stop third wave
THE European Union was dealt a blow in its rush to prevent a third wave of Covid sweeping the Continent after AstraZeneca announced further vaccine delivery delays to the bloc.
The pharmaceutical giant behind the Oxford jab blamed production problems and export restrictions for the latest shortfall. It had been hoping to make up for existing shortages by sourcing vaccines from its global network.
“Unfortunately, export restrictions will reduce deliveries in the first quarter, and are likely to affect deliveries in the second quarter,” the company said yesterday.
It comes as infection rates are rising sharply in central Europe and remain high in countries such as France. Italy was forced to bring in new lockdown measures on Friday.
Meanwhile, a botched rollout has left the Continent lagging far behind the UK and US in administering vaccines.
Some of the steepest rises in Covid-19 cases have come in Hungary, despite the country immunising its population faster than almost all its neighbours.
Medics have given more than a million jabs, and Hungary trails only Malta in the EU for vaccinations per capita.
But in a worrying sign, this success has not prevented the country suffering a new surge in infections, with Hungarians testing positive in record numbers.
Health authorities reported a new daily high of 9,011 positive tests on Friday, while another 130 deaths brought the country’s Covid toll to 16,627. On the same day the number of coronavirus patients in hospitals rose by 389 to reach 8,718.
The country now has the third highest Covid-19 fatality rate in the world, and is in fourth place globally for deaths from the virus per capita, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
This is despite Hungary using Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm jabs to help drive the vaccination rate up to 13.2 doses per 100 people, far better than the EU average of 9.1.
The media are reporting that hospital doctors are having to decide who lives, and who dies.
“We are increasingly faced with the situation when we have to decide to end life support for one patient … in order to help another patient who may have a better chance of surviving,” one doctor told Magyar Hang, a news website.
Cecilia Muller, Hungary’s chief medical officer, attributes the rapid rise in cases to the highly contagious British Covid variant. The mutant strain is sweeping across Europe, and research shows it is now responsible for 50 per cent of positive tests in Hungary – and that proportion is expected to grow.
This week the government tightened lockdown restrictions. Schools and nurseries will be closed until April 7, non-essential shops for a fortnight, and face masks are obligatory in public. A night-time curfew also remains in place.
But despite the dangers posed by the surge the government in Budapest remains optimistic it can control the virus. It says the health system has the capacity to cope, and that the recent arrival of hundreds of thousands of vaccines from China will help in the fight.