Coronavirus latest news: Indian government halting vaccine exports to UK blamed for supply issues
The UK's vaccination efforts will be paralysed from next month because the Indian Government is temporarily holding exports, according to the CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII), Adar Poonawalla, whose company is manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine.
"It is solely dependent on India and it has nothing to do with the SII. It is to do with the Indian Government allowing more doses to the UK," Mr Poonawalla told The Telegraph, who confirmed that five million doses of the Oxford vaccine had already been delivered to the UK in early March.
The second batch of five million further doses that the SII has pledged to the UK will only be delivered once the company was given the green light by New Delhi, which is deliberating how to slow a concerning resurgence in new daily Covid-19 cases, according to a source.
In addition to debating whether to implement new localised lockdowns, the Indian Government is considering whether it needs to stockpile more vaccines to expand its vaccination programme which has so far been limited to those over the age of 60 and those over the age of 45 with comorbidities.
Follow the latest updates below.
11:08 AM
WHO not encouraging vaccine passports for 'ethical and scientific reasons'
Dr Hans Kluge said the WHO was not encouraging the use of "vaccine passports" for both "ethical and scientific" reasons.
"It should not be a requirement for a number of reasons," he told a press briefing on Thursday.
"First, ethical. There is a global shortage of vaccines so this would increase the iniquities and if there is one thing that we have learned from the Covid-19 pandemic it is that the vulnerable people were hit disproportionately.
"Second, a scientific reason. We are not sure yet how long the immunity lasts once a person gets the Covid-19 vaccine and paradoxically if you get the vaccine you may be protected but still you can transmit the infection."
10:54 AM
The latest vaccine pictures from India
10:33 AM
WHO director says AstraZeneca benefits 'far outweigh its risk'
Dr Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine "far outweigh its risk" and its use "should continue to save lives".
Addressing a WHO press briefing on Thursday, he said it was "routine to signal adverse events" but people should "have confidence" in the protection given by vaccines.
"The Covid-19 vaccination will not reduce death or illness from other causes," he said.
"As of now we do not know whether some or all of the conditions have been caused by the vaccine or by other coincidental factors.
"At this point in time, the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine far outweigh its risk and its use should continue to save lives."
He continued: "Vaccines work and will eventually allow the return to a new normal but for that to happen we need to rely on science and have confidence in the incredible protection afforded by vaccines against all vaccine preventable diseases including Covid-19."
10:25 AM
Pakistan imports Covid vaccines for private sale, starting with 50,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V
Pakistan has begun importing Covid-19 vaccine for private sale, starting with 50,000 Sputnik V Russian shots.
The consignment will be the first of regular deliveries, officials said, and came as the country braces for a third wave of infections.
Officials have again closed schools and begun locking down hotspot neighbourhoods as the UK variant drives a new spike in cases.
Ben Farmer has more on this story.
10:17 AM
People in 40s might have to wait til May for jabs
People in their 40s are likely to have to wait until May to get their Covid-19 vaccine after problems with a shipment of the AstraZeneca jab from India impacted supply.
Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said news of constraints in supply was "disappointing" and "a bit of a setback", and the focus in April will be on giving second doses to people who were vaccinated earlier in the year.
"The impact of this shortage of supplies will happen on the group that we were hoping to start on in April, which is the people under the age of 50 without any pre-existing conditions, who are now going to have to wait until May," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
10:08 AM
On this day last year
Here's what happened on Mar 18, 2020.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR - Mar 18
- UK Covid cases 2,626, deaths 104
- Wetherspoons announces pubs will stay open, but only for table service and no cash payments
- Govt announce schools will close until further notice, no exams
How @Telegraph covered it: pic.twitter.com/6GyGxrlEpg— Gareth Davies (@GD10) March 18, 2021
10:07 AM
Northern Ireland says AstraZeneca supply issues could put them back four weeks
Patricia Donnelly, the head of the vaccine rollout in Northern Ireland, said issues with AstraZeneca supply lines across the UK will not have a huge impact on the timeline for administering jabs in the region.
Ms Donnelly told the Assembly's Health committee that plans had been flexed to make more use of Pfizer jabs pending the arrival of further AstraZeneca stock.
She said all first jab appointments already booked will be honoured and those expecting a second jab will also receive it.
Ms Donnelly said more people would continue to get first jabs in April but at a slightly reduced rate.
She said the delivery issues could knock back the rollout plan by four weeks in a "worst case scenario" but said the delay was more likely to be around two weeks.
"I think, worst case scenario, it probably puts us back by four weeks," she told the committee.
"The mitigation measures that we put in place we hope will only delay us by two weeks, so it won't have a huge impact."
09:51 AM
Poll: Would you still get the AstraZeneca vaccine?
Ministers, experts and Government advisers have all said the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab is perfectly safe after some EU countries decided to halt the rollout due to blood clot fears.
British data suggests that the amount of blood clots seen is no different to what would be expected in the general population.
But a German vaccine regulator said the number of people suffering cerebral blood clots after receiving the AstraZeneca jab in Germany was "statistically significantly higher" than the number that would have been expected in the general population and that a link was "not implausible".
So if you were offered the AstraZeneca jab today - what would you do?
09:38 AM
World awaits EU medical regulator's AstraZeneca investigation results
The world awaits a decision from Europe's top medical regulator into whether there is any evidence to show the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is linked to a small number of blood clots reported in people across the continent.
The European Medicines Agency's expert committee is set to announce the results of its investigation later on Thursday.
Earlier this week, more than a dozen countries including Germany, France, Spain and Italy suspended immunization using the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after reports of unusual blood clots in several people among the 17 million who have received at least one dose in Europe.
Both the EMA and the World Health Organization have said there is no current evidence to suggest the vaccine was responsible and that the benefits of immunization far outweighed the potentially small risk of getting vaccinated.
AstraZeneca said after a careful review of its COVID-19 immunization data, it found no evidence of any increased risk of blood clots in any age group or gender in any country.
09:36 AM
Brazil sees record daily cases
Hard-hit Brazil has posted more than 90,000 daily Covid-19 cases for the first time, as the country's far-right President said he was happy his supporters were holding protests to oppose social distancing, reports Ben Farmer.
The record toll of infections follows a string of records for daily death tolls and warnings that the country's intensive care wards are on the brink of being overwhelmed. Jair Bolsonaro said the protests made him happy. "They show that the people are alive ... we want our freedom, we want the world to respect our constitution," he said.
Mr Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the disease and clashed with doctors calling for him to take more action.
Brazil now has 11,693,838 confirmed cases. Deaths on Wednesday rose by 2,648, the second highest tally after the record reported Tuesday, and now total 284,775.
09:25 AM
How are different countries' vaccine rollouts progressing?
As the UK's vaccine rollout threatens to stutter, here is how it compares to other countries.
09:05 AM
Government learned of supply issues 'in last few days'
Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick said the Government had learned of coronavirus vaccine supply issues "in the last few days", and suggested the problem is not due to reductions from a single nation.
The Housing Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have learned from some of our manufacturers that there are going to be some supply issues in the last few days.
"A number of global manufacturers are experiencing issues."
Pressed if the issue was vaccine coming from India, he said: "It's not that there's any one factory responsible for this or any one country."
08:30 AM
Telegraph's exclusive interview with CEO of Indian vaccine firm
The Telegraph's Samaan Lateef has secured an exclusive interview with Chief Executive Officer of Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla.
Q: The UK is facing a shortage of Covid vaccines and attributes it to India. Is there any problem with manufacturing?
A: We have supplied 5 million doses to the UK. I don’t know what are they talking about.
Q: The five million doses - when was this? And was this a bilateral deal?
A: It was supplied to AstraZeneca and they gave it to UK few weeks ago, I think. There was media coverage of it.
Q: How many more will be sent to the UK?
A: It is solely dependent on India. It has nothing to do with the SII. It is to do with the Indian Government allowing more doses to the UK.
Q: Serum Institute was due to send 10 million doses to the UK this month – but just half have arrived, with the five million due at the end of this month now delayed by four weeks.
A: No, there is no stipulated contract period and time in which I am supposed to deliver these doses. I am helping as I can and when I can AstraZeneca and UK to supply these doses.
There is no vaccine shortage. There was never a commitment to supplying doses to the UK in any stipulated time. We just said we will offer our help. India has allowed 5 million doses to go to the UK. The balance doses will be decided to be given to the UK at an appropriate time by the Indian Government. While balancing India and all its needs at the same time.
This clarifies the point that we are not delayed at all giving anything to the UK because there was nothing stipulated that in any finite amount of time were we supposed to deliver 10 million doses. And of course, don’t forget we are primarily supplying the CoVax to poorer nations as they are the ones who have not got the doses. So there is really no question of any delay to the UK from Serum Institute.
08:20 AM
Exclusive | India behind UK supply shortage
Read more on this exclusive from Joe Wallen and Samaan Lateef.
British MPs' criticism of the Indian Government’s alleged use of force against peacefully protesting farmers was not behind the delay, according to a source, with exports to other countries also being held.
The SII would still commit to delivering the remaining five million doses as soon as possible, a source told the Telegraph, and this commitment would not “take months.”
"There was never a commitment to supplying doses to the UK in any stipulated time. We just said we will offer our help," said Mr Poonawalla.
It was waiting for a directive from a “cautious” Indian Government and did not want to anger New Delhi, which was requesting more vaccine doses than the SII had initially allocated, according to an interview Mr Poonawalla gave to Bloomberg on Wednesday.
“We had to dedicate a lot of our capacity, which was not originally planned for India. We’re trying to balance it out as much as possible, but again for the first few months we have been directed to prioritize supplies to India and certain other countries that have a high disease burden,” said Mr Poonawalla.
India has spearheaded the Covid-19 global vaccination drive, with at least 58 million “Made in India” doses being distributed to 66 countries, including 16 million doses for the Covax global vaccine sharing scheme.
While public health experts have showered the country with praise for its selfless approach, the Indian Government has come under growing pressure domestically to stockpile vaccines so that doses can be rolled out for its entire population.
07:54 AM
Rollout might be slightly slower due to supply issues
Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick has conceded the rollout of coronavirus vaccines would be slightly slower than expected because of the supply shortage.
The Housing Secretary told BBC Breakfast: "We are experiencing some supply issues so it does mean the vaccine rollout will be slightly slower than we may have hoped but not slower than the target we set ourselves.
"We're going to move forward as quickly as we possibly can but it won't be as fast as we might have hoped for a few weeks but then we have every reason to believe that supply will increase the months of May, June and July."
07:47 AM
Cabinet minister 'dissapointed' by EU threats
The Housing Secretary has been left "surprised and dissapointed" by the EU's theat to block vaccine exports to the UK.
Watch his interview on Sky News below.
Robert Jenrick says he is "disappointed" by Ursula von der Leyen's threat to block vaccine exports to the UK, adding the European Commission president gave Boris Johnson a "very clear commitment" that "contractual responsibilities would be honoured".https://t.co/3rZfKA3cO4 pic.twitter.com/9UDTgB0TM7
— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 18, 2021
07:43 AM
Supply issue due to international imports, minister hints
Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick has suggested the issue with vaccine supply is due to doses being imported from abroad and did not deny a reported problem with supply from India.
The Housing Secretary told Sky News: "We're sourcing vaccines from all over the world and we're experiencing, occasionally, some issues and that has led to issue with some supply in the coming weeks."
But asked about supply from India after a reported delay in the delivery of five million Oxford/AstraZeneca doses from the Serum Institute of India, he said: "I'm not going to get into the specific contracts we have with different manufacturers. We're sourcing vaccines from many countries all over the world.
"It's a very complex international supply chain and that does mean occasionally we will experience issues and that's what we've experienced right now."
07:41 AM
'Nobody who has an appointment should be concerned'
Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick has said "nobody who has an appointment should be concerned" amid a temporary shortage of vaccine supply.
The Housing Secretary told Sky News: "We do think there are going to be some supply issues in the weeks ahead but this isn't anything that people should be worried about, we're still on course to meet our targets.
"Nobody who has an appointment should be concerned, you're still going to get your second vaccine, all those appointments will be honoured.
"But we always said right from the beginning that a new manufacturing process would have its lumps and bumps, that has been the case in the past and I'm sure it will be in the future."
07:36 AM
'No reason to believe' roadmap could be delayed, says minister
Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick has said there is "no reason to believe" the road map to easing the lockdown will be delayed by the shortage in vaccine supplies.
The Housing Secretary told Sky News: "There's no reason to believe the road map is affected by this temporary shortage in supply.
"There's no concern that we are off course on the road map."
07:29 AM
Today's front page
Here is your Daily Telegraph on Thursday, Mar 18.
06:29 AM
Sherelle Jacobs: The five taboo Covid lessons we must learn
The emerging truth we can't quite face is that while the effectiveness of lockdowns is limited, their side effects are limitless, writes Sherelle Jacobs.
As the one-year anniversary of lockdown approaches, and an inquiry into the pandemic looms, an “official” Covid story is forming. The country seems to have settled on the narrative that the Government failed to take the pandemic sufficiently seriously in the first few weeks: experts are gravely unanimous that a failure to lock down quickly enough cost tens of thousands of lives. Squashed sardines at Cheltenham are seared into the public memory as the symbol of our complacency. The abandonment of Test and Trace last February after Public Health England realised systems could only manage five new cases each week has already become the most notorious “computer says no” moment in the Westminster machine’s history.Speaking to the Science and Technology Select Committee yesterday, Dominic Cummings added his own vivid flourishes to this narrative, calling the Department of Health and Social Care a “smoking ruin” when the crisis struck.This is an astonishingly narrow version of events. Fixating on a few weeks either side of last March overlooks mistakes made before the pandemic (such as the Blair government’s fatal conflation of two separate diseases – influenza and Covid SARS – in Britain’s pandemic planning back in 2005).
Read more: The five taboo Covid lessons we must learn on the first-year anniversary of lockdown
05:37 AM
Covid reinfection more common for over 65s
Most people who have had coronavirus are protected from catching it again for at least six months, but those aged 65 and over are more prone to reinfection, new research suggests.
Large-scale assessment of reinfection rates in Denmark in 2020 confirms that only a small proportion of people (0.65%) returned a positive PCR test twice.
However, while prior infection gave those under the age of 65 years around 80% protection against reinfection, for people aged 65 and older it only gave 47% protection, indicating that they are more likely to catch Covid-19 again.
According to the study published in The Lancet, the researchers detected no evidence that protection against reinfection declined within a six-month follow-up period.
Dr Steen Ethelberg, from the Statens Serum Institut, Denmark, said:
"Our study confirms what a number of others appeared to suggest: reinfection with Covid-19 is rare in younger, healthy people, but the elderly are at greater risk of catching it again."Since older people are also more likely to experience severe disease symptoms, and sadly die, our findings make clear how important it is to implement policies to protect the elderly during the pandemic.
03:59 AM
'Do not resuscitate' orders 'imposed' on care home residents
Blanket "do not resuscitate" orders have been imposed on care home residents without their consent during the Covid pandemic, the care watchdog has been told as it warned that the "potentially unlawful" practice may still be going on.
More than 500 residents were made subject to such orders, according to a survey by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), although the true number is likely to be much higher because the majority of care providers did not respond.
Blanket do not attempt cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions were also imposed on people with learning disabilities "who are not near the end of their lives", the report said, showing a "concerning disregard for disabled people".
The CQC also discovered a surge in overall DNACPR orders in place in nursing homes, where the number of residents subject to them leapt from 74 per cent to 92 per cent after mid-March last year. The regulator's damning report could now trigger a raft of legal cases brought by the relatives of people who died.
Read more: Care home residents put on 'do not resuscitate' orders without consent
03:38 AM
Tanzania's Covid-sceptic president dies
Tanzania's President John Magufuli, one of Africa's most prominent coronavirus sceptics, has died aged 61, after a more than two-week absence from public life that led to speculation about his health.
Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Wednesday that Mr Magufuli died from the heart disease that had plagued him for a decade. She said burial arrangements were under way and announced 14 days of mourning and the flying of flags at half-mast. State television broadcast mournful and religious songs.
Mr Magufuli, had not been seen in public since Feb 27, sparking rumours that he had contracted Covid-19. Officials denied on March 12 that he had fallen ill amid reports that he had flown to Kenya for treatment for the virus.
Read more: John Magufuli: Tanzania's president and coronavirus sceptic dies aged 61
02:41 AM
Today's top stories
Vaccine shortages mean there will be no more first appointments for Covid jabs booked in April amid growing chaos with supplies arriving in Britain
Ursula von der Leyen was accused of acting like a dictator on Wednesday after she threatened to seize factories, waive patents and ban vaccine exports to the UK unless Boris Johnson surrendered British coronavirus jabs to the EU
Blanket "do not resuscitate" orders have been imposed on care home residents without their consent during the Covid pandemic, the care watchdog has been told as it warned that the "potentially unlawful" practice may still be going on
British hopes of summer holidays in the European Union were raised on Wednesday after Brussels set out plans for vaccine passports
Dominic Cummings has attacked the Department of Health as an “absolute total disaster” and “smoking ruin” at the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting it could not be trusted to run the vaccine programme
Hospitals have been accused of lying to care homes about the presence of Covid-19 on their wards as they rushed to free up beds at the start of the coronavirus pandemic
Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, is facing warnings that his plan to make company directors personally liable for the accuracy of accounts risks stifling entrepreneurship and undermining the Covid recovery
