Brussels, 06/01/2022 (Agence Europe) – The EU has shared 380 million doses of “safe and effective” Covid-19 vaccines with third countries, “mostly through COVAX”, announced European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, stating on her Twitter account that the EU is “so far the biggest donor” of these products with conditional market authorisation. Of this total, 255 million doses have been delivered to low- and middle-income countries (see EUROPE 12849/18). She added: “We have exceeded our vaccine-sharing target in 2021”, which was 250 million. Reiterating that the EU intends to share at least 700 million doses with these countries by mid-2022 (see EUROPE 12843/3), she affirmed that “we are on track to fulfil this promise and, in particular, we will step up our efforts to support Africa, where vaccination rates are lower” (7% on average). (AN)