the european medicines agency

US firm Johnson & Johnson is likely to apply for EU approval for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate in February, a top lawmaker said on Wednesday.

Clinical data of the vaccine, which Johnson & Johnson is developing through its subsidiary Janssen, have been assessed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) since Dec. 1 under a rolling review to speed up possible approval.

Greece has received the first batch of coronavirus vaccines developed by Moderna Inc.

Coming on top of ongoing distribution of Pfizer-BioNTech shots, the country received the first 8,000 doses of the vaccine, approved for use by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) last week, and expects a total of 20,000 doses to be delivered by the end of January.

The European Union's target to have secured enough vaccinations against the novel coronavirus to inoculate every citizen in the bloc by the end of 2021 is within reach, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides told Kathimerini in Brussels on Monday.

Ljubljana – Slovenia is to receive 26,000 doses of the newly approved Moderna coronavirus vaccine by the end of February, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. The European Commission and Moderna agreed on the supply of 80 million doses with the possibility of increase by another 80 million doses. Slovenia has the right to 369,767 doses from each supply.

It turned out that Covid-19 vaccines manufacturers cannot not cope with the flood of deliveries, they even warned that they might be late. But each country should get vaccines population-proportional. Israel pays USD 30 per dose, so they arrive there first. Not only Israel, but many Middle Eastern countries have purchased vaccines as a priority, at a higher cost.

The European drugs regulator could soon give the go ahead for an extra sixth dose to be extracted from Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine vials, an EU official told Reuters on Wednesday, lifting the number of available shots at a time when supplies are short.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin has discussed possibilites for closer cooperation in the coronavirus pandemic situation. The two leaders are said to have discussed possible ways of jointly producing vaccines during a phone call.

The health ministries of thw two countries will continue the talks on the matter together with exeprts.

At its today's sitting the Council of Ministers decided to allocate additional BGN 125 million in order to provide enough vaccines against COVID-19.

The European Union geared up to start mass vaccinations against Covid-19 just after Christmas after the shot developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech cleared regulatory hurdles on Monday.

Greek health authorities have ascertained a steady but very slow de-escalation of pressure on the country's health system over the last two weeks.

However, the estimates that the number of intubated patients will drop to 300 by Christmas have yet to be confirmed, making it difficult for authorities to reach any decisions about the duration of restrictions.