EU chief: 60% of bloc to be inoculated by mid-2021

Nearly 500 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine could be made available to European Union member-states by the end of the first semester of 2021, according to the bloc's chief executive, Ursula von der Leyen. In an interview with correspondents of several European newspapers, including Kathimerini, von der Leyen provided, for the first time, detailed figures for the first and second quarter of 2021, while revealing that the EU will receive 406 million doses of the three vaccines that have received authorization by the end of June.

Should the vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson and CureVac also receive authorization by European authorities, as it is expected, the total number of doses will rise to 486 million. Kathimerini understands that Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine will account for 55 million of these doses. As a result, barring any other delays, 270...