The EU is ready to proceed with legal actions against AstraZeneca

All updates from around the world about the coronavirus emergency (here you can see the map of infections in real time).

Thursday, March 25

(Updated at 1:05 p.m.) Global deaths from the coronavirus have surpassed 2.74 million. This is the outcome of counts from Johns Hopkins University. The American university says the pandemic has killed at least 2,744,045 people around the world since it began. The two million victims figure was exceeded on January 15. Meanwhile, the total number of confirmed cases of infection has risen to 124,894,108. Over 94 million people have been recovered so far.

EU ready for legal action against AstraZeneca

The European Commission is prepared to pursue legal action against AstraZeneca if it fails to obtain a satisfactory result on the compliance of the contract for the supply of anti-Covid vaccine doses.

This is according to EU sources in Brussels hours before the EU leaders’ summit begins. « We do not seek to win a lawsuit for the sake of winning it, but to obtain more doses,« particularly for the second quarter, on which there is a concern, these same sources explained, while adding that there is still «a big gap» on agreed doses, as well as « confusion over which lots go to whom.»

« While the European Union and the United Kingdom argue about supplies of Covid vaccines and the rules regarding exports, the companies’ patent monopolies and the lack of shared technology is the real cause of the current shortage of doses, particularly in low-income countries which at present will only be able to vaccinate 3% of the population by mid-year and 20% by the end of 2021.» This was the alarm issued in a note by Oxfam and Emergency, members of the People’s Vaccine Alliance in view of today’s EU Council.

«We call on European leaders to take action immediately to discontinue pharmaceutical monopolies, which are artificially limiting the availability of doses and preventing other companies around the world from joining the production effort, putting countless lives at risk and allowing variants of the virus time to multiply, at the risk of nullifying the efficiency of current vaccines,« said Sara Albiani, Head of Global Health at Oxfam Italy, and Rossella Miccio, President of Emergency. « Italy, as a key player in the European balances, as the third largest economy in the EU and rotating president of the G20, has the potential to play a decisive role in detecting bold political paths out of the current situation of shortage and unequal access to vaccines,« continues the note.

« Europe and the UK have so far drawn on the already limited quantities of vaccines that were initially allocated to the poorest countries by the Serum Institute, which manufactures AstraZeneca’s vaccine in India. This is an unacceptable race to hoard vaccines, and there will be no winner without action on the pharmaceutical companies to renounce the intellectual property rights of patents, also because of more than 100 billion dollars of public funding received globally. «This is the reason why it is an absolute priority to support know-how transfer through the WHO Covid Technology Access Pool (Ctap). More manufacturers are coming forward from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Senegal, Denmark and Canada to produce the vaccines, but they are currently blocked because the patents and technology remain exclusive and are not shared.»

Therefore, it is necessary that governments apply «pressure - said Albiani and Miccio - on the pharmaceutical giants so that they transfer the development plans, technology and patents of vaccines to WHO. This issue should be at the top of the European agenda».

Third wave in Turkey

Infections and victims of Covid-19 are increasing rapidly in Turkey, where the confirmed cases have exceeded 3 million and the deaths have risen to 30,462. In recent days, data from the Ministry of Health indicates a significant growth in the country’s new daily sicknesses, which reached almost 30,000 yesterday, while deaths doubled within a week, reaching 146 in one day. Experts say the country is in the midst of a third wave, which will continue at least until late April. Meantime, the vaccination campaign with the Chinese serum Sinovac continues. So far, the doses administered are 14.2 million, with more than 6 million recalls, expected 28 days after the first injection. The immunization process, which began in mid-January, continues with an average of about 200 thousand inoculations per day. A greater pace could arrive next week, when Ankara will begin to use the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, of which it received 1.4 million doses so far.

In Israel over 50% vaccinated with 2 doses

50.07% of the Israeli population has been vaccinated by two doses. This was stated by the Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, cited by the media. In comparison, 55.96% had at least one dose.

Strong vaccination campaigns have dramatically decreased new infections. The rate of positives in the last 24 hours - as per the Health Ministry - was 1.1%, and this morning 1.3%: the former is the lowest since last April; the latter, since June.The R Factor has dropped to 0.55.

30 million cases in the US

The number of Covid cases in the United States has exceeded 30 million, reaching exactly 30,001,245. This is what emerges from the data of the John Hopkins University.