BRUSSELS, March 31 (Reuters) - European Union states are
expected to receive 107 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by
the end of March, an EU Commission spokeswoman said on
Wednesday, hitting an earlier target but far below initial
plans.
Under contracts signed with drugmakers, the bloc had
expected to receive 120 million doses by the end of March from
Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca alone and tens of
millions more doses from Pfizer-BioNTech and
Moderna.
But after major cuts from AstraZeneca, the EU had revised
down its target until the end of March to about 100 million
doses.
The Commission spokeswoman told a news conference that
AstraZeneca was expected to deliver 29.8 million doses by
Wednesday, in line with its revised-down goal.
Pfizer-BioNTech will deliver 67.5 million doses and Moderna
nearly 10 million, figures that the EU has said are in line with
their initial commitments.
The EU expects a major ramp-up of deliveries in the second
quarter that it says will be sufficient to inoculate at least
70% of its adult population by July, and speed up its so far
slow vaccination drive.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)