London: The European Union tightened vaccine export controls in a bid to ramp up its stuttering inoculation campaign while the United States said its inoculation drive was showing results for over-65s.
Under the EU’s new rules, the bloc’s European Commission executive will weigh how needy countries are as well as how readily they export doses to the EU before approving shipments.
“Open roads should run in both directions,” commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic, the vaccination progress in the U.S. is now visible in “significant declines in emergency department visits among people over 65,” said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Around 70% of Americans aged 65 or over, more than 38 million people, have received at least one dose, and the group’s hospital admissions for COVID-19 are down 85% since early January.
In Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that while the US had “looked to the stars” by pumping massive resources into vaccine procurement, the EU had been “a bit of a diesel engine… it starts slowly”.
Speaking on the EU’s vaccine rollout which has stuttered, “We were wrong to lack ambition,” Macron said, while insisting that “we are catching up”.
With Britain seen as one of the main targets of the EU’s new export rules, London and Brussels issued a joint statement Wednesday saying the neighbours were “working on specific steps… to create a win-win situation and expand vaccine supply”.
However, ahead of the declaration, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the bloc risked “long-term damage” to its reputation if it imposed “a blockade, or interruption of supply chains”. – PNP
