February 17 With the continuous spread of COVID-19 variant strains, the European Union announced on the 17th that it would invest more than 200 million euros to strengthen the identification and research of COVID-19 variant strains.
On the same day, it also announced the purchase of an additional 300 million doses of Modena coronavirus vaccine.
According to the announcement issued by the European Commission on the same day, the European Union will invest a total of 225 million euros to deal with the risks posed by the coronavirus variant strain, of which 75 million euros will be used to assist member states to improve their gene sequencing capabilities.
The proportion of positive samples for COVID-19 tests will be sequenced from about 1% at present. Increase to 5%, so as to identify COVID-19 variant strains in time and monitor their spread and pathogenesis in people.
The remaining 150 million euros will be used to support the study of COVID-19 variant strains and the exchange of data.
The European Union will convene 16 member states and five countries, including Switzerland and Israel, to build a clinical trial network platform on which participating countries can exchange data and gradually include children and youth in the clinical trial subjects.
The announcement quoted European Commission President von der Leyen as saying that at present, the current coronavirus variant strain is emerging, and the EU must make adjustments as soon as possible to get ahead of the virus.
The package announced on the 17th is intended to bring together the strength of the scientific community, industry and government departments and mobilize all available resources to fight the epidemic.
On the 17th, the European Commission also announced that on the basis of ordering 160 million doses of vaccines in November last year, the European Union and Modena reached a second agreement, deciding to purchase an additional 300 million doses of Modena coronavirus vaccine, so that the total number of orders for the EU’s coronavirus vaccines has increased to 2.6 billion doses.
The EU did not disclose when Modena delivered the vaccines. On January 6 this year, the European Union approved the use of the Modena coronavirus vaccine and allowed the vaccine to be released to the EU market.
However, at the end of January, Modena reported that due to the adjustment of production capacity by Swiss-based partners, it was unable to deliver enough vaccines outside the United States in the short term.
Subsequently, Italy, France, Switzerland, Canada and other countries confirmed that the number of Modena coronavirus vaccine received in February will be 10% to 20% lower than originally planned.
