Last checked at 
* Delivery of AstraZeneca shots from India contributed to
delay
* Britain has warned of significantly reduced supplies in
April
* Serum Institute says will try to supply more vaccine later
(Adds further detail)
By Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Holton and Alistair Smout
LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Britain is facing a squeeze on
supply of COVID-19 vaccines next month in part due to a delay in
a shipment from India's Serum Institute that is making
AstraZeneca's shot, health minister Matt Hancock said on
Thursday.
Britain has been conducting the fastest roll-out of
inoculations by a major economy but health officials said on
Wednesday the programme would face a significant reduction in
supplies from March 29, without initially specifying where the
problems were.
"We have a delay in a scheduled arrival from the Serum
Institute of India," Hancock told lawmakers.
Britain is using vaccines made by Pfizer and
AstraZeneca, with 10 million doses of the 100 million
ordered from AstraZeneca coming from the Serum Institute.
A spokesman for the Serum Institute said it had delivered 5
million doses to the UK a few weeks ago.
"And we will try to supply more later, based on the current
situation and requirement for the government immunisation
programme in India," he said.
Despite the comments by officials in Britain, Pfizer and
AstraZeneca said on Wednesday their delivery schedules had not
been impacted. An AstraZeneca spokesman said on Wednesday that
"UK domestic supply chain is not experiencing any disruption".
Hancock added that, separately, a batch of 1.7 million
vaccine doses had been delayed as it had to be retested, without
specifying the manufacturer.
"Events like this are to be expected in a manufacturing
endeavour of this complexity," Hancock said.
MODERNA VACCINE TO BE ADDED
Hancock denied rumours that the delays would mean no adults
would get a first dose of the vaccine in April, but said it was
important to make sure there was enough vaccine to give people a
second dose within 12 weeks of their first.
He also said that Britain was on target to offer everyone
over 50 a first shot by mid-April, and a shot to all adults by
the end of July. He added that a roadmap for lifting lockdown
restrictions in England was unaffected.
So far 25.27 million people in the United Kingdom have had a
first shot of vaccine, around 48% of adults. The country is on
track to reach 50% in the next few days.
Earlier, housing minister Robert Jenrick said that supplies
would pick up again in May, and Moderna Inc has said it
is expecting first deliveries of its vaccine to Britain to start
in April.
Hancock said Britain expected doses of Moderna's vaccine to
arrive "in the coming weeks".
TENSIONS WITH THE EU
The announcement of a supply shortfall coincided with a
resurgence in tensions with the European Union, which is
frustrated by a lack of exports of AstraZeneca's vaccine from
Britain.
The EU threatened on Wednesday to ban exports of COVID-19
vaccines to Britain to safeguard scarce doses for its own
citizens. Britain imports Pfizer's vaccine from Europe.
Hancock said that European Commission head Ursula von der
Leyen had previously said that there should not be restrictions
on companies who are fulfilling contractual responsibilities
after Jenrick said he was "surprised and disappointed" with her
comments.
"There is of course a need for all countries to respect
contract law... and I'm sure that the European Union will live
up to the commitments and statements that it has made," Hancock
said.
"We fully expect those contracts to be delivered on, because
there are very significant consequences to breaking contract
law."
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Holton and Alistair Smout
in London
Additional reporting by Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Editing by
Sarah Young, Giles Elgood, Nick Macfie and Frances Kerry)
