January 28, 2021:Germany is about to face a shortage of coronavirus vaccines by April, the country’s health minister has warned.

“We will still have at least ten tough weeks with a shortage,” Jens Spahn tweeted.

Germany’s rollout pace has been criticized, and it has failed to meet its daily target of vaccinations.

The UK-based company has said production issues at its Europe-based plants meaning; it cannot be delivered as promised number of doses to the 27-member bloc.

But the EU said the firm must honor its commitments and deliver the jabs by diverting stock from the UK.

Mr. Spahn called for a vaccination summit involving pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, and politicians to accelerate the Thursday rollout.

“We are going through at least ten tough weeks. We should spend that by working together”, Spahn said.

The EU is hoping for approval on Friday; delivery would start straight away, with around 80 million doses arriving in the 27 nations until March. But the production issues have dented this hope.

According to the last week’s reports, the EU would get about 50 million jabs than promised in the first quarter of the year.

The bloc is also facing a delay in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine supplies, and it has a much bigger deal with the US-German vaccine maker.

 EU and AstraZeneca vowed to work together to resolve the problems, and crisis talks were held on Wednesday.

Germany’s falling number of cases was encouraging and suggested schools could reopen once the current lockdown ends on February 14.

Meanwhile, the country is preparing to bar travelers from the UK, Brazil, and South Africa over new variants. “We are co-ordinating towards the aim of refusing inbound travel from mutation areas,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said.