00:00The fight against COVID-19 is an ongoing challenge.
00:04On the one hand, we see that the mortality rates are decreasing
00:10because of the successful vaccination campaign of the elderly.
00:13But on the other hand, we see that the infection rates are not decreasing accordingly
00:19because of the new variants that are more infectious that we observe.
00:23And we are mainly worried about the hotspots where we see even increasing infection rates,
00:31although there are tough measures taken.
00:33We see new controls at the border that have a negative impact on the cross workers
00:39or the free flow of goods.
00:42In this situation, the commission has negotiated an additional 4 million doses
00:48of BioNTech Pfizer vaccine still in March.
00:52So it's on top of the actual delivery schedule.
00:57The BioNTech Pfizer vaccine has proven effective against the known variants.
01:02That's important for us.
01:04So these 4 million in Q1, Q1, will be distributed to the member states on a pro rata basis.
01:11And this might enable the member states, for example,
01:15to have a targeted approach in the hotspots to reduce the spread of the mutants.
01:22The fight against COVID is a marathon, but we are in this together.
01:25Thank you.
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