Four million extra Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses will be delivered to EU countries under a deal reached with the pharmaceutical company, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday.
The doses to vaccinate two million people against Covid-19 will be supplied in addition to the planned deliveries, to ease border movement and to tackle virus hotspots, the Commission said.
“To tackle aggressive variants of the virus and to improve the situation in hotspots, quick and decisive action is necessary,” Ms von der Leyen said.
So where are the coronavirus hotspots in Europe?
According to the Commission, the number of infections and hospital admissions rose steeply over the past few weeks in regions like Tyrol in Austria, Nice and Moselle in France, Bolzano in Italy and some parts of Bavaria and Saxony in Germany.
The latest data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows the Czech Republic and Estonia with the worst outbreaks.
Karlovy Vary, a Czech region near the border with Germany, has a 14-day incidence rate of 2,365 cases per 100,000 people – almost eight times the European average of 312.
In the two-week period ending February 28th, the Estonian region of Saare Maakond had an infection rate of 1,783 per 100,000.
The figures for Ireland during the same period show an infection rate below the European average, at 202 cases per 100,000.
The south-west region has one of the lowest rates in Europe, at 68 per 100,000.
Ireland is in line to receive roughly 46,500 extra vaccines, enough to fully vaccinate 23,225 people, in March on top of the deliveries that were already due, according to the Government.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the doses would arrive by the end of March, and “administered quickly”.
He also said that efforts were ongoing to increase production of the vaccine.
