Febuary 1, 2021

Germany should use the Russian and Chinese coronavirus vaccines if they win EU approval, the health minister has said, as the French president said Europe must step up its vaccine roll-out and several European countries began easing restrictions.

Speaking ahead of an emergency summit with vaccine manufacturers to tackle the country’s sluggish rollout, Jens Spahn said that if a vaccine “can be considered safe and effective, regardless of what country it has been produced in, then it could help”.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will chair the summit, is under pressure to accelerate Germany’s vaccine programme which has seen two million people receive the jab so far compared with more than 10 million in the UK – although Germany has now given more people second doses than Britain.

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