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LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Britain said on Thursday that
there were lumps and bumps in the global vaccine supply chain
that were causing slower deliveries than expected and scolded
the European Union for threatening to slap a ban on vaccine
exports.
British health officials cautioned the health service on
Wednesday that there would be a significant reduction in vaccine
supplies from March 29 though Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca
Plc said their delivery schedules had not been
impacted.
"We always said right from the beginning that a new
manufacturing process would have its lumps and bumps and that
has been the case in the past and I'm sure it will be in the
future," Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told Sky.
"We're sourcing vaccines from all over the world and we are
experiencing occasionally some issues and that's led to this,
this issue with some supply in the coming weeks," he said.
Britain is on track to have given a first COVID-19 shot to
half of all adults in the next few days, making it one of the
fastest countries in the world to roll out a vaccine.
Asked if the issue was supply from India, Jenrick said he
did not think it was right to discuss specific contracts.
He said the country remained on track to have vaccinated
priority groups by April 15 and all adults by the end of July.
"The main thing is, we're still very much on course, we've
still got line of sight to deliver the vaccines and to meet our
targets," Jenrick said.
The European Union threatened on Wednesday to ban exports of
COVID-19 vaccines to Britain to safeguard scarce doses for its
own citizens facing a third wave of the pandemic that would
jeopardise plans to restart travel this summer.
The threat from European Commission head Ursula von der
Leyen was disappointing, Jenrick said.
"I was surprised and disappointed by those comments but the
prime minister had spoken earlier in the year to Ursula von der
Leyen and she gave a very clear commitment, which was that the
EU would not engage in this sort of activity, that contractual
responsibilities would be honoured.
"And that's exactly what we intend to do and I hope and
expect the EU to stick to their side of the bargain."
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; editing by
Sarah Young)
