Europe can have immunity by July

Europe could have herd immunity against Covid-19 by July, a European Union commissioner has said, as incoming jabs are expected to speed up the continent's sluggish vaccine rollout.

The note of optimism comes even as several European countries have started reimposing restrictions as they contend with surging coronavirus infections, and after mixed messaging on the safety of a key jab.

"Let's take a symbolic date: by July 14, we have the possibility of achieving immunity across the continent," Thierry Breton, the EU's commissioner for the internal market told French broadcaster TF1.

"We're in the home stretch, because we know that to beat this pandemic there's just one solution: vaccination. The vaccines are arriving," he said.

More than a third of France's population is now under renewed lockdown, while frustrations over virus curbs spilled into weekend demonstrations in Germany, Amsterdam, Bulgaria and Switzerland.

Europe's battle to prevent a deadly third wave of infections has been complicated by a patchy vaccine drive that included several nations temporarily halting AstraZeneca's shots in response to isolated cases of blood clots.

Most have since resumed using the vaccine after the European Medicines Agency found it "safe and effective".

AstraZeneca Plc said yesterday its Covid-19 vaccine developed with Oxford University was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness in a large trial in Chile, Peru and the United States, paving the way for it to apply for US approval.

The vaccine was also 100% effective against severe or critical disease and hospitalisation, and was safe, the partners said, releasing results of the late-stage human trial study of more than 32,000 volunteers across all age groups.

The data will give credence to the British shot after results from earlier, separate late-stage studies raised questions about the robustness of the data.

AstraZeneca said an independent safety committee conducted a specific review of the blood clots in the US trial, as well as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), which is an extremely rare blood clot in the brain, with the help of an independent neurologist.

The London-listed company said the panel found "no increased risk of thrombosis or events characterised by thrombosis among the 21,583 participants receiving at least one dose of the vaccine. The specific search for CVST found no events in this trial."

"These results are great news as they show the remarkable efficacy of the vaccine in a new population and are consistent with the results from Oxford-led trials," Andrew Pollard, who runs the Oxford Vaccine Group, said.

AstraZeneca said it was preparing to submit the data to the US Food and Drug Administration and for a launch in the United States should it win Emergency Use Authorization, reports Reuters.

University of Oxford professor Sarah Gilbert told BBC radio that work to prepare the submission will take a few weeks.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday he was "reassured" EU leaders do not want blockades on vaccine exports, while Ireland's leader warned a threatened ban would be "very retrograde".

Britain has urged the European Union not to halt exports of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine in response to a shortfall in deliveries to the bloc from the Anglo-Swedish firm.

"I'm reassured by talking to EU partners over the last few months that they don't want to see blockades, I think that's very, very important," Johnson told reporters.

"I've talked to our friends repeatedly. We're all facing the same pandemic, we all have the same problems," he added.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday threatened to impose an export ban on the AstraZeneca vaccine unless the company delivers more of the 90 million doses it agreed to supply in the first quarter of 2021.