The Czech Republic is negotiating separately the supply of coronavirus vaccines from AstraZeneca beyond the order agreed by the European Union for all EU Member States. This was stated on Saturday by the Seznam Zprávy server based on the statement of the Ministry of Health. When and how many benefits could arrive, the ministry has not yet indicated. At the end of January, the Minister of Health Jan Blatný (for YES) claimed that the Czechia is not considering the purchase of vaccines outside the joint EU agreement. The use of Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines is currently authorized in the EU. All three manufacturers reported supply volume problems in January.
The Czech Republic has joined the common European orders for all available vaccines. He has ordered vaccinations for about 11 million people, including three million doses of AstraZeneca. “The Ministry of Health was approached by representatives of AstraZeneca for the Czech Republic with an offer of other vaccines. We are in contact with AstraZeneca and discuss further details, especially the number of doses, delivery date and price,” said Barbora Peterová, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry verifies whether the Czech Republic’s negotiations with AstraZeneca are in accordance with EU agreements. The Czechia, together with other EU countries and the European Commission, has previously agreed not to negotiate privately with manufacturers with whom the European Commission is negotiating. The Czech Ambassador to the European Union, Edita Hrdá, told the Seznam Seznam server. “It is now being verified whether direct purchase is possible in view of the above-mentioned commitment and also what possibilities the contract signed between the commission and the manufacturer gives at all,” she said.
Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček (ČSSD) told the server that, in general, EU member states are not limited in any way and can conclude their own contracts. “Of course, a coordinated EU approach is a priority at this time, but in the future the country must also secure its own supplies,” he said.
Already on Wednesday, members of the opposition parties ODS, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09 stated that the Czechia has the opportunity to order benefits from AstraZeneca. At the time, the House called on the government to negotiate with the company. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (YES) then claimed that he did not know what the opposition’s offer was talking about.
Until recently, only Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna were vaccinated in the Czech Republic. However, vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine also started in several regions of the country on Thursday. According to clinical studies, the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine is lower than that of competing companies. However, AstraZeneca uses more traditional technologies, which facilitates the production of the vaccine, which also does not have to be stored in a deeply hypothermic state. This makes it more suitable for mass vaccination campaigns.
Source: Tyden.cz by www.tyden.cz.
*The article has been translated based on the content of Tyden.cz by www.tyden.cz. If there is any problem regarding the content, copyright, please leave a report below the article. We will try to process as quickly as possible to protect the rights of the author. Thank you very much!
*We just want readers to access information more quickly and easily with other multilingual content, instead of information only available in a certain language.
*We always respect the copyright of the content of the author and always include the original link of the source article.If the author disagrees, just leave the report below the article, the article will be edited or deleted at the request of the author. Thanks very much! Best regards!
