The European Commission will today extend EU powers to potentially block COVID-19 vaccine exports to Britain and other areas with much higher vaccination rates, and to cover instances of companies backloading contracted supplies, an EU official said.
The moves, which the EU official said could hit Johnson & Johnson, are designed to avoid even limited shortfalls in deliveries to a region whose inoculation programme has been beset by delays and supply issues. Shipments abroad could also be withheld if vaccine-producing countries, such as Britain and the United States, do not allow exports to the EU, the official said, confirming comments by Commission head von der Leyen last week.
As tensions between London and Brussels rose on Monday over a possible export ban, Britain demanded that EU authorities allow the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines it has ordered.
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