Italy and France fold over AstraZeneca jabs: Mario Draghi and Emmanuel Macron vow to ‘quickly resume’ using the vaccine once European Medicines Agency gives final clearance
Italy and France have committed to ‘quickly’ resume inoculations of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine once the European regulator gives the all-clear.
They are among a host of EU nations to have suspended use of the jab after some people it was administered to suffered blood clotting problems.
Boris Johnson and the UK medical regulator has insisted the vaccine is safe and continues to roll it out at pace.
Today Italian PM Mario Draghi and French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to roll the pitch for an imminent climbdown.
On a call the two leaders agreed they were ready to resume using the jab ‘quickly’ if the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives the green light on Thursday.
‘The preliminary statement today from EMA was positive,’ a statement from Draghi’s office said.
President Macron has previously undermined the efficacy of the jab, declaring it ‘quasi-ineffective’ for the over-65s – a position he also later rowed back from.
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Italian PM Mario Draghi (right) spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron (left) on Tuesday