EU Says Will Receive Additional 20Mln COVID-19 Vaccine Doses In Q1 Of 2022

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2021) The European Union will receive additional 20 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine in the first quarter of 2022, the European Commission said on Sunday.

"In Q1 of 2022, BioNTech-Pfizer will deliver an additional 20 million vaccine doses (5 million in January, 5 million in February and 10 million in March)," the commission said in a statement.

According to the statement, the commission and member countries have also initiated a first option to place an order for more than 200 million doses, per its third contract with Pfizer and BioNTech.

"This order also covers vaccines adapted to the Omicron variant, should these vaccines become available. By this order, the EU is preparing itself in case adapted vaccines are needed. Deliveries of these over 200 million doses are expected to take place as from Q2 2022," the statement read.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the EU countries have decided to purchase the approved vaccines together. At the moment, roughly 67% of the EU population has been vaccinated, including children, and over 62 million people have already received their booster shots.