VIENNA (AUSTRIA) – Austria, Greece and Denmark will jointly put pressure on the European Medicines Agency for the approval of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine at the earliest, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Monday, adding: “Every week counts.”
Kurz was speaking before a European leaders’ virtual summit on Thursday. This is coming a day after he said Austria’s lockdown will last until at least February 7 as it tries to curb highly infectious new variants.
“Every week counts,” Kurz told a news conference after a video call with various countries about how to deal with the virus. “We expect that work be done day and night, that a decision be reached unbureaucratically and that Europe not fall behind.
“What is now needed is – based on all scientific facts, of course – an immediate and quick decision, because AstraZeneca can deliver up to two million doses in the first quarter for Austria alone, and that of course makes an enormous difference to our success in vaccinating the population.”
Kurz also said vaccine doses provided by Pfizer, which is part of the already approved ones, would reach late, after Pfizer said it was temporarily limiting deliveries to Europe.
“Yes, there will now have to be a small adjustment here or there because it currently seems as though we will receive 20% less, which will then be caught up in February at the latest,” Kurz said.
