The leaders opened talks via videoconference and debated ways to ease production bottlenecks and speed up the rollout of vaccines, as well as the severity of restrictions that should remain in place to halt the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 531,000 people across the bloc's 27 nations.
Divisions among EU member countries, including
“The epidemiological situation remains serious, and the new variants pose additional challenges. We must therefore uphold tight restrictions while stepping up efforts to accelerate the provision of vaccines,” the leaders will say, according to a draft summit statement seen by The Associated Press.
The
Not far from where
Soriot said
“Every time there is a human error, equipment breaking down...or raw material from one of our suppliers late by a day, you cannot start making the product because it will not be safe, you will not have the right quality,” Bancel said, explaining the technological issues facing producers.
Soriot said a big challenge is to improve yield - the number of doses that can be extracted from a liter of vaccine. He also rejected the idea that companies can simply open new production sites to solve the problem, saying that engineers must spend a lot of time training staff.
“Our teams are absolutely stretched to the maximum. There’s no way they could train any more people,” he said. Soriot insisted that most companies developing vaccines probably face the same constraint.
During their summit, the EU leaders also weighed whether and when to introduce vaccine certificates, which could help smooth a return to air travel and possibly avoid another disastrous summer holiday season, as the tourism industry and broader economies suffer from restrictions.
Southern European countries dependent on tourism, like
“First it must actually be clearly resolved that vaccinated people are no longer infectious,” German
Austrian Chancellor
“Those who are vaccinated should have full freedom, but so should those who just had corona and are immune, and all those who take a test and can prove through the test that they are negative,” Kurz told Germany’s Bild tabloid.
Public pressure to relax measures is building.
In
But according to the draft statement, the leaders will say that the crisis is far from over, especially as vaccine production lags, and that restrictions on nonessential travel, among other measures, remain valid.
With leaders conscious that the pandemic won't end unless it’s defeated everywhere, summit talks will also touch on getting vaccines to other countries in need, notably in
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission., source