THE European Medicines Agency, EMA, is to decide whether to recommend U.S. firm Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for conditional market authorisation on Wednesday, January 5, as EU governments face growing frustration over their slow roll out of vaccines.

If recommended for final approval by the European Commission, considered a formality, the shot would be only the second vaccine for the respiratory disease in the EU.

A positive decision could help take the heat off some EU leaders, whose citizens are looking enviously to the U.S., Britain and Israel where millions of jabs have already been administered.

Only the Pfizer-BioNTech jab is allowed in the EU at present, and production and delivery bottlenecks have contributed to a sluggish first week.

Germany has mustered 316,000 so far, while France has managed 5,000.

The Netherlands only started inoculating its citizens on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Mark Rutte getting lampooned in parliament for the delay.

The EU has ordered 300 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab and 160 million of Moderna’s so far. Both require two shots for vaccination. – dpa/NAN