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BRUSSELS, April 21 (Reuters) - The European Union has
exported about 37 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines than
it has shared out among its own 27 countries, two sources told
Reuters citing figures from the bloc's data.
The EU is buying most of its vaccines together as a bloc
and, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and
Control nearly 133 million doses have been distributed among EU
states.
That compares to 136 million doses exported since Jan. 30 to
43 countries, with Japan the top recipient at 52.3 million
doses, followed by ex-EU member Britain at 16.2 million, the
sources said after the European Commission presented the figures
to the 27 member states' European ministers on Tuesday.
For the most granular data available since Jan. 30, when the
EU set up a mechanism to monitor vaccine flows, Canada, Mexico,
Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Turkey, Singapore, Colombia and Hong
Kong make up the 10 leading recipients of EU exports.
Some 34 million additional doses were also exported in
December and January, EU rough data for those months shows,
bringing the total to about 37 million.
EU governments are under pressure to accelerate vaccination
programmes, which have lagged behind those in Britain and the
United States due to supply delays and safety concerns, to help
control a third wave of infections among the bloc's 450 million
people.
Britain and the EU traded accusations of "vaccine
nationalism" when the bloc introduced an exports monitoring
mechanism to see why it was not getting the shots it contracted
from companies, notably the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca. The UK
has exported no doses to the EU.
The EU's choppy vaccine rollout has led economists to lower
their expectations for an economic rebound in the euro zone this
quarter.
Earlier this week, the bloc said it would ship over half a
million COVID-19 shots to the Western Balkans by August to help
poorer neighbours, and challenge Chinese and Russian influence
there.
(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Francesco
Guarascio and Ed Osmond)
