EU eases its controls on COVID-19 vaccine exports

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union says it will ease its restrictions on exporting COVID-19 vaccines. The Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Friday that as of January it will no longer require vaccine producers to request special authorization to export outside the 27-nation bloc. Earlier this year when vaccines were still in short supply, the EU introduced a mechanism to keep some of the coronavirus doses it secured from AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish drug company, from being diverted elsewhere. The supply of vaccines is no longer the issue that it was then. The bloc has now vaccinated over 65% of its total population of some 450 million inhabitants.