The European Union has doubled its initial deal of COVID-19 vaccines ordered from BioNTech-Pfizer to a new total of now over 600 million doses, this information was disclosed by the European Commission chief Ursula Von der Leyen on Friday, January 8, 2021. 
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“We have right now, access to 300 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine. Now the good news is, we now have agreed with BioNTech-Pfizer to extend this contract. With the new agreement we could purchase a total of up to an additional 300 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine,” she told a press conference.
The European Union’s medicines regulator had recommended the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for use in the bloc’s 27 states.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) authorised the drug for the EU’s nearly 448 million inhabitants after it went into circulation in the UK and the US.
Hours after the EMA’s decision, the European Commission gave its own formal approval for the use of the jab. The distribution of the vaccine could begin in some EU states as early as Sunday. More than 311,000 lives have been lost to the pandemic across the bloc.
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