Ocelot Funder line has urged farmer company AstraZeneca to stick by its commitments to supply the U with its covert 19 vaccine.

Comments come after the British Swedish firm said it was cutting the number of doses for the U by 60% because of production problems.

The drugmaker also said it was not contractually obliged to deliver, but Funder Line said the contract is quote crystal clear in response, the US taking steps to allow it to prevent the export of vaccines from the U if need be.

The controversy comes as the block faces pressure, with many countries failing to meet their vaccination targets.

But our correspondent Georg Matters in Brussels knows Maura about all this.

You know there's a new offer on the table from AstraZeneca.

What can you tell us exactly?

Get out!

There are reports, unconfirmed reports.

I have to say that an extra offer off some eight million vaccine doses has come in from AstraZeneca.

There's also reports about some other concessions that have been made by the pharmaceutical giant.

Frankly, if you look at the numbers and the 60% cut that AstraZeneca has announced, it will still take us to only half the doses that were promised.

And there's a number of pressing questions you know, where have the dose is gone, that the U.

S.

Pre financed and why, actually, is this cut affecting Europe and not other countries like the UK?

Those questions are still unanswered.

So you mentioned the okay, the U K.

And they get the doses that they preordered.

That's part of the dispute, isn't it?

Absolutely.

That's part of the dispute.

And the CEO of AstraZeneca has explained that the reason for that is that the deal with the UK has been done earlier that in that contract with the U.

K, it's foreseen that the two factories in the UK only cater to the UK and not to the U.

But the U reasoning is that no such hierarchy off cos.

Sites, no hierarchy or no priority off deployment off vaccines is foreseen in the contract they have been given.

And also the point that the CEO of AstraZeneca made about best practice doesn't count for the U.

For the U.

That's a lame excuse.

They say there is a clear commitment, and that is why they hope the company will publish the this particular contract today for everyone to see that the promises that have been made to the you are unfulfilled.

So did the you not know that the UK would have a priority on Is, was there a lack of due diligence on the on the use part?

Or should Astra have told them from?

From the perspective of the you, there is a lack of information.

The key issue for them is that if you cut the vaccine supply that was promised by contract by more than half by 60% you need to come up with, um, some really good reasons for that.

And those reasons haven't been given.

Apparently there is a problem in the supply chain on the European side in a factory in Belgium, but from the perspective of the U, the AstraZeneca is a global company.

They're producing as far away as India.

And if they have supply problems, that bod needs to be shared by all the countries that they are handing out their vaccines to.

And it can't be that the biggest customer, which is the you only carries the burden.

Well, new measures are now being introduced and it's being discussed today that could see an export ban off doses from the U.

I's not a tit for tat move.

Well, first of all, that that would be the most radical step if if you want.

What the U is currently doing is is basically flexing their muscles to show AstraZeneca that they do mean mean business when it when it comes that they're not taken for fools.

If you want, we'll we'll still have to see toe whether it will lead, actually to an export ban.

And and for the moment, officials here rule that out.

What they want is not vaccine nationalism, as some in the UK have put it.

But what they want is fair treatment and to monitor whether the treatment is fair and according to the contract.

That is why they will introduce this transparency mechanism today.

Whether you can monitor to what extent vaccines that are being produced on European soil are leaving the EU girl want us there in Brussels.

Thank you, Georg.

Germany's health minister, Jens Spahn, has welcomed the AstraZeneca off off a further eight million vaccine doses to the U.

But speaking this morning, he also underlined that the European Union has paid for and is entitled to be originally promised, 80 million doses through the European Union.

Member states have invested jointly in the pre production of these vaccines.

Eso they also have a right to profit from that thought.

This is not about Europe.

First, it's about a fair allocation for the European Union, German health minister and spawn speaking there in our d.

W.

Chief political correspondent Linda Crane is in Berlin.

Milliner.

We heard the German health ministers there.

What else did he say?

Well, I just spoke to a press conference and said that he knows that Germany's roll out of the vaccine has been problematic and he understands people's impatience.

But the fact is that difficult week still do lie ahead.

He also mentioned the vaccine summit that the government will be holding on Monday, saying that that would be looking to improve coordination on the vaccine between the federal states and the federal government.

Here in Berlin, he said, nonetheless, progress is being made, especially in the vaccination of vulnerable groups, and that the government still hopes to reach its target off, offering the vaccine toe all people in care facilities, elderly care facilities by the middle of February and finally said that as of March, he expects the situation will ease not only because of the AstraZeneca vaccine then becoming available, but also to further vaccines that are in the pipeline so that he still believes Germany can meet its school of offering vaccines to all who want TEM by the end of the summer.

So vaccination being one side of the story containment is another where Germany is planning to close the borders now for some countries.

Tell us more about that.

That's correct.

Germany's interior minister said yesterday that as soon as today the government may announce a plan to essentially shut down travel from five countries where the new mutations are known to be prevalent.

So that would be Brazil, Britain, Ireland, Portugal and South Africa.

There had been talk earlier this week of possibly shutting off air travel altogether.

That is not the case.

It would be limited to these five countries, and apparently there would be exceptions for German citizens returning from those places as well as for people who work in the freight industry.

It was VW's chief political correspondent, Linda Crane, reporting results from large scale trials in the UK suggest another new vaccine could soon be available.

US.

Pharmaceutical company Novavax has said it's coronavirus vaccine given in two doses is almost 90% effective.

The firm has applied for regulatory approval in the U.

K Novavax scientists began working on a covert 19 cure one year ago.

Rapid progress meant it wasn't long before human trials were underway.

Now efficacy tests have shown their hard work has paid off with a vaccine that is 89% effective even against the new Yuki variant off the virus.

I think the other bit of news that comes through is that there is slightly different levels of efficacy against the different strange variants who you've been hearing about.

That's not surprising, but it is just a little message that we are going to see some degree of variation of protection against these variants.

A separate trial in South Africa showed the inoculation had just under 50% efficacy against the new variant.

This is rampant there, Novavax says it's already working on a booster to try and improve that.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcome the headline news and said the U.

K had ordered 60 million doses.

The European Union has ordered 200 million.

It's the fourth vaccine to seek approval from Western regulators, though doses are not expected to be ready until later this year.

Good time to have a look at some other developments in the coronavirus pandemic.

The makers of Russia's Sputnik five vaccine have said they can provide 100 million doses to the U.

Hungary is the only country in the block to have approved the Russian job.

Mexico has surpassed India as the country with the third highest Corbett 19.

Death toll over 155,000 have died there on the United Nations has called 2020 the worst year in tourism history, with global losses off more than €1 trillion.

United Nations secretary general is calling the distribution of covert 19 vaccines a quote.

Global Emergency Secretary General Antonio Guterres said more than 70 million doses have been administered worldwide, but fewer than 20,000 vaccinations were on the African continent.

The warned that while every country has the duty to protect its own people, no country can afford to neglect the rest of the world.

This is a global crisis.

Science is succeeding.

Solidarity is failing.

It's about fair distribution, not only about money, fair access to coronavirus vaccines around the globe.

That's what the European Union promised the world.

Even before the first vaccine was approved.

The U has invested heavily in research and development, and member states have put millions into helping poor nations acquire vaccines in the future.

But as the world scrambles to produce and distribute enough jabs in the end, it seems Europe does come first.

If you can't help, that's fine, Rhonda's former health minister, Anya's beyond Huahua tells me.

But then don't cast yourself as a savior.

Be frank and say my people first, don't lie to me and say we will be equal with.

So so because we start to prepare in run that we're prepared.

But we just see that your words we cannot contain it.

And that's not good.

While the coronavirus continues to spread rapidly in Africa on Lee, a few countries there have begun immunizing their citizens.

Egypt ordered vaccines from China, for example, and Guineas rolling out a Russian vaccine.

These two world powers were quicker off the mark than the U.

They're practicing vaccine diplomacy for to meet.

There are foreign policy objectives, but in the meantime, we need to look at the outcomes right in the year it helped write, Mitigate.

You know this the access gap between poor and rich nations.

Why not even Europe's closest neighbors in the western Balkans, happier to see the block deliver on pledges to help here to Chinese and Russian vaccines are filling the void.

The European Union have said they wanted it to be a global public good.

They wanted to ensure equitable access.

But we're just seeing even today and yesterday, then you know, suggesting or threatening that there might be export bans on the coronavirus vaccines produced in the U on.

So obviously, that's very concerning Sign of vaccine nationalism Here in Brussels, officials say humanitarian vaccine donations will be exempt from tougher export controls.

They promise help will come soon To say that the U is not doing anything.

I think it's is really not correct.

We are actually in discussion both with the member states, but also with the pharmaceutical companies in order precisely toe help.

This advanced.