The EU’s executive body, the European Commission, said that from January vaccine producers would no longer need special permission to export vaccines to countries outside the 27-member EU. Earlier this year, when the supply of the vaccine was short, the EU imposed some restrictions to prevent AstraZeneca’s vaccines from being delivered to countries outside the organisation.
The EU used this export control mechanism in March when 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were blocked from being shipped to Australia. European Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant said the new monitoring system would ensure transparency in exports, allowing companies to provide export data to the commission.
Spinant said the EU is the largest exporter of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine, exporting more than 1 billion 300 million doses to more than 150 countries.
AP Yash Madhav
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