EU limits vaccine exports as US sees health gains for elderly

The European Union on Wednesday tightened vaccine export controls in a bid to ramp up its stuttering inoculation campaign while the United States said its inoculation drive was already showing results for over-65s.

Under the EU's new rules, the bloc's European Commission executive will weigh how needy countries are as well as how readily they export doses to the EU before approving shipments.

"Open roads should run in both directions," commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said.

But where the EU vaccine rollout has stuttered, the US' leaps-and-bounds progress is now visible in "significant declines in emergency department visits among people over 65," said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Around 70 percent of Americans aged 65 or over -- more than 38 million people -- have received at least one dose, and the group's hospital admissions for Covid are down 85 percent since early January.

In Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that while the US had "looked to the stars" by pumping massive resources into vaccine procurement, the EU had been "a bit of a diesel engine... it starts slowly".

"We were wrong to lack ambition," Macron said, while insisting that "we are catching up".

Around the world, 479 million vaccine doses have been administered, according to an AFP count from official sources, with the United Arab Emirates, Chile, Britain, Bahrain and the US far ahead of major European nations.

Inoculations are for now mostly limited to better-off countries as another AFP tally showed that more than 2.7 million people have died worldwide.

'Win-win situation'

With Britain seen as one of the main targets of the EU's new export rules, London and Brussels issued a joint statement Wednesday saying the neighbours were "working on specific steps... to create a win-win situation and expand vaccine supply".

But ahead of the declaration, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the bloc risked "long-term damage" to its reputation if it imposed "a blockade, or interruption of supply chains".

In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel made a rare climbdown by scrapping plans for a strict Easter shutdown after a public outcry.

"This mistake is mine alone," Merkel said. "The whole process has caused additional uncertainty, for which I ask all citizens to forgive me."

Germany is also weighing a temporary ban on certain trips abroad to help curb infections, a government spokeswoman said.

Neighbour Belgium said it would bring in a new partial lockdown for four weeks, closing schools and limiting access to non-essential shops as it seeks to quell a third wave.

And the Netherlands extended coronavirus restrictions until April 20 while France imposed new lockdown measures in three regions.

The Austrian capital Vienna and two neighbouring regions will be locked down tighter over Easter holidays, with only specific exceptions such as buying food and daily exercise.

Poland meanwhile recorded its highest daily infections with nearly 30,000 new cases.

New AstraZeneca row

The EU-British showdown has added to AstraZeneca's woes after several countries suspended its vaccine over blood clot fears.

The World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency have both said the jab is safe and effective, dismissing feared links with clots.

Finland on Wednesday said it would resume the shot for over 65s, while Iceland would do the same for people over 70, joining several countries that have started using the vaccine again.

In a fresh controversy, the British-Swedish firm this week published promising results from its US trials, but a day later the US National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) raised concerns the results were outdated.

The head of the agency, Anthony Fauci, said the data discrepancy was a "bump in the road" and hoped it would not puncture confidence in vaccines, saying data would show AstraZeneca was "a good vaccine".

AstraZeneca has backed its shot, saying Tuesday that a review found the interim results it had announced were "consistent", and that it would release new analysis and data "within 48 hours".

Meanwhile Hong Kong suspended injections of a different vaccine, from Pfizer/BioNTech, blaming "defective caps" on vials in a recent batch.

Separately, authorities in the Chinese territory kicked a clinic out of its vaccination programme for reportedly recommending the German-made Pfizer/BioNTech shot to patients over the one from China's Sinovac.

'Like a war'

The pandemic has taken a turn for the worse in many nations, with known infections worldwide approaching 124 million.

Hard-hit Brazil's daily death toll crossed 3,000 for the first time, as the South American nation's healthcare infrastructure was pushed to the brink by an explosion of cases.

Supplies of medical oxygen for Covid-19 patients have fallen to "worrying" levels in six of Brazil's 27 states, officials said Tuesday.

The warning raised fears of a repeat of horrific scenes in the northern city of Manaus in January, when oxygen shortages left dozens of Covid-19 patients to suffocate to death.

"You have no idea what it is to see families running around to find oxygen canisters," Manaus-based doctor Adele Benzaken told AFP.

"It was like a war -- the chaos of a bombing, when people are running around desperately without knowing what to do."