We were too optimistic about vaccine production: EU Commission chief

Soldiers of the German armed forces Bundeswehr wear face masks as they enter the new vaccination centre on the day of its opening at the former Berlin Tegel Airport, in Berlin, on Wednesday. Pic/AFP

As the European Union (EU) surpassed the toll of 500,000 people lost to the virus, the EU Commission chief said on Wednesday that the bloc's much-criticised vaccine rollout could be partly blamed on the EU being over-optimistic, over-confident and plainly late. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen defended the EU's overall approach of trying to beat the pandemic with a unified vaccine plan for its 27 nations, even if she admitted mistakes in the strategy to quickly obtain sufficient vaccines for its 447 million citizens.

"We are still not where we want to be. We were late to authorise. We were too optimistic when it came to massive production and perhaps we were too confident that, what we ordered, would actually be delivered on time," von der Leyen told EU plenary. Despite weeks of stinging criticism as the EU's vaccine campaign failed to gain momentum compared to the Britain, Israel and the United States, the three main parties in the legislature stuck with von der Leyen's approach of moving forward with all member states together. "The key decisions were right," said Manfred Weber, the leader of the Christian Democrat European People's Party. The Socialists and Democrats party leader Iratxe Garcia said "fiasco, catastrophe, disaster: they ring very true to our citizens," but added her party will stick with von der Leyen on the bloc moving together.

Greek PM announces full lockdown in Attica
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Tuesday a full COVID-19 lockdown for the Attica region, where half of Greece's population lives, in order to stem the further spread of the novel Coronavirus. All schools in the region will be closed, students will return to online learning, and all stores will also shut down, with the exception of supermarkets, pharmacies, bakeries and gas stations, the Xinhua news agency reported.

‘Negative report must for entry through US border'
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that non-essential travellers entering the country through the US border will have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test from next week.

NZ approves Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine
The New Zealand government has formally approved the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, a minister said on Wednesday. In a statement, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said that border workers and the people they live with will be the first to be vaccinated, Xinhua news agency reported.

UK variant found in 86 nations: WHO
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday (local time) announced that Coronavirus variant B.1.1.7, which was first identified in the United Kingdom on September 20, has been reported in 86 countries.

1,95,520
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

10,70,02,486
Total no. of cases worldwide

2,343,477
Total no. of deaths worldwide

Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins

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