German health ministry spokesman Hanno Kautz said the practice, which is already permitted in the UK, would come into effect immediately, boosting available doses of the vaccine by 20%.<\/p>\n
The move comes after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc had secured an extra 300 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.<\/p>\n
Follow live COVID updates from the UK and across the world<\/strong><\/p>\n EU member states have also been offered the chance to buy an extra 300 million – bringing the total available to 600 million.<\/p>\n Ms Von der Leyen said 75 million of the extra doses would be available before July, with the rest delivered throughout 2021.<\/p>\n The bloc has six contracts for up to 2 billion doses, with Moderna, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Pfizer\/BioNTech and CureVac.<\/p>\n This week, Moderna became the second COVID-19 vaccine approved by the EU<\/strong> following the one produced by Pfizer.<\/p>\n The EMA is still assessing the Oxford\/AstraZeneca version with approval possible by the end of the month. The UK started administering it<\/strong> this week.<\/p>\n Vaccination programmes in the EU have started slowly, with some states blaming the Commission for a perceived failure to deliver the right number of doses.<\/p>\n It has defended its strategy, saying vaccinations have just started and large deliveries are foreseen around April.<\/p>\n Ms von der Leyen said: “We were faced with a situation where we had huge demand, but the production capacity had not kept pace with that as yet. Now, we have a positive step forward.”<\/p>\n After reports some EU countries tried to secure separate deals with vaccine manufacturers, Ms von der Leyen made clear these would violate the agreement accepted by EU members.<\/p>\n “We have all agreed, legally binding, that there would be no parallel negotiations, no parallel contract,” she said.<\/p>\n “So the framework we are all working in is a framework of 27. Together we are negotiating, together we are procuring and together we are bringing forward this vaccination process.”<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/20\/12\/768x432\/skynews-pfizer-vaccine-biontech_5214878.jpg\")
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