EU to supply 20 mln additional vaccine doses to fight Omicron variant

EU leaders attend the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Dec. 16, 2021. (European Union/Handout via Xinhua)

Being the world's COVID-19 epicenter for a second time, Europe is bracing for a new wave of the pandemic.

BRUSSELS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The member states of the European Union (EU) will receive an additional 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the first three months of next year to hasten the pace against the fast-spreading Omicron variant, the European Commission said on Sunday.

"The Commission has today agreed with BioNTech-Pfizer to accelerate the delivery of its mRNA vaccine to Member States, starting in a few weeks," it said in an announcement. Five million doses will be delivered in January, another five million in February and an extra ten million doses in March.

These doses come on top of the already scheduled 195 million doses from BioNTech-Pfizer, bringing the total number of deliveries in Q1 to 215 million.

A woman passes a bus for vaccination in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 30, 2021. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

The announcement came after the European Commission announced on Thursday that Moderna had agreed to accelerate the delivery of its mRNA vaccine to EU countries.

"In view of the deteriorating epidemiological situation in the European Union over the past months, full vaccination and the roll-out of boosters remains one of the EU's top health priorities," said the executive arm of the EU.

Being the world's COVID-19 epicenter for a second time, Europe is bracing for a new wave of the pandemic.

On Dec. 16, 529 new Omicron cases were reported in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), contributing to an overall total of 3,158 cases caused by the variant, said the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Children are seen with their parents after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Cascais, Portugal, on Dec. 18, 2021. Portugal started vaccinating children between the ages of five and 11 against COVID-19 from Saturday. (Photo by Pedro Fiuza/Xinhua)