COVID-19: The European Commission has reached an agreement with the pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, “to acquire a potential vaccine against Coronavirus Covid-19, as well as to donate it to low and middle-income countries”
Greek Minister of Health said Tuesday it hoped to receive the first batch of vaccines against the Covid-19 by December, under an agreement between the EU and the pharmaceutical industry. “If all goes well, Greece will receive its planned share in seven shipments (…) We will start in December with 700,000 doses”, Minister of Health Vassilis Kikilias told SKAI TV. Deliveries will run from December to June, he added.
The European Commission could buy 300 million doses
The European Commission announced on Friday that it had reached an agreement with the pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, mentioned on Tuesday by the minister, “to acquire a potential vaccine against Covid-19, as well as to donate it to low or middle-income countries or to redirect it to other European countries ”.
The Commission said that “once the vaccine proves to be safe and effective” it will purchase 300 million doses of it, with an “option to purchase 100 million more for the benefit of member countries of the ‘EU’.
The spread of the coronavirus has skyrocketed in recent weeks
Greece has a relatively low rate of infection and death from Covid-19 compared to other EU countries, but the spread of the coronavirus has skyrocketed in recent weeks. The country has recorded more than 7,200 cases in total, including some 2,800 in August alone. 230 people have died from Covid-19 in Greece.
Authorities attribute the outbreak to non-compliance with distancing rules in restaurants, bars and public gatherings.
Nightly closures of restaurants and nightclubs
Civil protection has ordered nightly closures of restaurants and nightclubs in more than a dozen regions, including some of the country’s top tourist spots.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned that “more drastic measures, which will undoubtedly have economic repercussions”, will be put in place if the spread of the virus continues.
