Austria To Help Czech Republic With Covid Vaccines

Muhammad Irfan Published April 02, 2021 | 09:52 PM

Austria said Friday it would send 30,000 coronavirus vaccine doses to neighbouring Czech Republic after coming under fire from Brussels for refusing to help EU partners in greater need of jabs

Vienna, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Apr, 2021 ) :Austria said Friday it would send 30,000 coronavirus vaccine doses to neighbouring Czech Republic after coming under fire from Brussels for refusing to help EU partners in greater need of jabs.

"We will help the Czech Republic bilaterally with 30,000 doses," Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in a statement sent to AFP.

On Thursday, Kurz had been accused of showing "a lack of solidarity" by other EU countries for insisting that Austria receive its full quota of vaccines out of a shipment of 10 million extra Pfizer-BioNTech doses for the 27-nation bloc as a whole.

These were an advance delivery of an order of 100 million doses scheduled for the third quarter of this year.

A group of 19 states including Germany, France, Italy and Spain had decided to show solidarity with Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia -- considered to be most in need -- who would get their full quota of 2.85 million doses.

But Austria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic had all dug their heels in and insisted on their full quotas.

Chancellor Kurz had "abandoned" the five partner countries, one European diplomat said, while another accused him of being "egoistic".

The centre-right leader also came under fire at home, with opposition Social Democrat lawmaker Joerg Leichtfried saying he had damaged Austria's reputation abroad.