BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany expects British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc to deliver three million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in February despite the company’s latest production problems, Health Minister Jens Spahn told Bild am Sonntag .
AstraZeneca on Friday told European Union officials that delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine to the group would be reduced by 60% to 31 million doses in the first quarter of the year, a senior official told Reuters.
The decline is another blow to the COVID-19 vaccination rate in Europe after Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech slowed the supply of their vaccine to the block this week, saying the move was necessary due to work on production to increase.
“The good news is that if the AstraZeneca vaccine is approved at the end of January, we expect at least 3 million doses of vaccination for Germany in February,” Spahn said in an interview with Bild am Sonntag.
Spahn acknowledged that this was less than expected. The delay showed that vaccine manufacturing was a much more complicated task than some media headlines suggested, he added.
Spahn renews his promise that the government will be able to make a vaccination offer for all citizens who want the chance by the summer. “If the expected approvals for further vaccines come, it will remain so,” Spahn said.
The government also remains committed to its goal of being prepared to vaccinate all willing citizens over the age of 80 by March, Spahn said.
The minister rejects criticism that Germany is not lacking in other countries in its vaccination process.
“We can make meaningful comparisons within two or three months,” Spahn said, adding that Germany had decided to start vaccinations in nursing homes, which he described as a more complex and time-consuming task.
(Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Alex Richardson)