Johnson & Johnson’s first doses of Covid vaccine to arrive April 16-17 in Europe

Dirk Ramaekers, a member of the vaccination task force, said on Saturday that the Covid-19 vaccine from the company Johnson & Johnson will arrive on April 16 and 17 in Europe. “We are awaiting the precise timetable by country at the beginning of next week”, he said, “In principle, Belgium is counting on 1.4 million doses”.

The task force took advantage of its weekly conference to take stock of the deliveries of the various companies that produce anti-Covid vaccines. So far, Pfizer-BioNTech appears to be by far the most reliable and punctual supplier, with exact numbers every week, at least until the end of next month. By the end of April, Pfizer will deliver more than 1.4 million doses. The counter currently stands at 1.2 million vaccines delivered. “Since Pfizer delivers very regularly and also meets the reported figures, we do not need to keep second doses of vaccine in advance,” said Dirk Ramaekers. “For AstraZeneca, on the other hand, it remains difficult. They still regularly make adjustments to the promised volumes, sometimes even during the week of delivery.”

AstraZeneca, of which more than 500,000 doses have currently arrived in our country, could only give a delivery schedule for the next two weeks. In the week of March 22, 27,904 doses are expected to arrive. The following week, that figure will rise to 256,416 doses. “For Moderna’s vaccine, the weeks following that of March 22 are still a bit of a wait,” said Dirk Ramaekers. “It’s annoying for the strategy, even if, concerning Moderna, these are more limited volumes”.

The task force hopes to compensate for the failing deliveries of AstraZeneca from mid-April with the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.