Delays in vaccine delivery postpone beating Covid-19 - president

In an interview for UK daily The Financial Times (FT), Polish President Andrzej Duda has said delays in receiving vaccine doses from the Pfizer pharmaceutical company will delay victory over the coronavirus pandemic.

Duda told the FT that Pfizer's limitations to deliveries were a huge problem for everyone with contracts with the US company and that every day the battle against Covid-19 costs Poland wealth. He estimated the cost of delays to the Polish budget at PLN 1 billion (EUR 220 million) a day.

On January 15, Pfizer and vaccine production partner BioNTech reported that they had worked out a plan that would enable them to increase production capacity of the Covid-19 vaccine in Europe and promised significantly greater deliveries in the second quarter of the year. However, in order to achieve that goal, they said modifications were needed to the production process as a result of which, production at their facility in Puurs, Belgium, would be temporarily reduced. They said a return to the original timetable for EU deliveries would happen on January 25 and that deliveries would be increased from February 15.

Last Friday, government spokesman Piotr Mueller said the Polish government would consider legal steps against Pfizer if agreed deliveries were not met, adding that he hoped Pfizer would honour its obligations.