The President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen. – Johanna Geron / AP / SIPA
The European Union hopes to be able to reach the goal set for September of vaccinating 70% of adults against the coronavirus by July, announced the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, this Friday during a visit to a Pfizer factory. -BioNTech in Puurs, Belgium.
“Thanks to the enormous efforts of biotech company Pfizer and the acceleration of its vaccine deliveries, I am now confident that we will have enough doses to immunize 70% of the adult population in the European Union by July », Said Ursula von der Leyen.
A new contract with Pfizer
Plagued by delays in some planned deliveries, notably from the Swedish-British laboratory AstraZeneca, the EU had so far set the goal of vaccinating 70% of its adults by September. “But, as we are currently seeing, production is increasing, deliveries are increasing, we have stable processes,” said the German leader.
“Yes, we had some difficulties early on, delays and bottlenecks in production, but we were able to overcome them,” she added. The head of the European executive announced the signature “in the coming days”, of a new contract with Pfizer, providing for the delivery until 2023 of 1.8 billion additional doses of this vaccine, which is the main used in Europe.