In this March 16, 2020, file photo, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan gives an interview to The Associated Press, in Islamabad, Pakistan. Khan has tested positive for Coronavirus, two days after he received his first dose, Khan's special assistance on the health Dr. Faisal Sultan said on Saturday, March 20, 2021. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)
Passengers wearing face masks to help protect against coronavirus, observe social distancing guidelines as they ride an electric train in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, March 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Evgeny Uvarov)
Pedestrians wear face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, March 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
A health worker takes a nasal swab sample of a staff member to test for COVID-19 inside the Government Polytechnic College campus in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, March 20, 2021. India is third behind the United States and Brazil in total coronavirus infections. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Medical staff members tend to a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit of the Papa Giovanni XIII hospital in Bergamo, Italy, Thursday, March 18, 2021. Bergamo’s state-of-the-art Pope John XXIII Hospital verged on collapse last March: as army trucks ferried virus dead from the city’s over-taxed crematoria, doctors struggled to care for 600 COVID patients, 100 in intensive care. One year later, the picture is much improved: the hospital now is treating fewer than 200 virus patients, just one quarter of those requiring intensive care. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A family frolic on the shore of a beach during an easing of lockdowns imposed by the government due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Santa Clara, Panama, Friday, March 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)
A medical worker receives the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine for the coronavirus at a vaccination center in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 20, 2021. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP)
In this Tuesday, May 19, 2020, file photo, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has his temperature taken during a screening amid the coronavirus pandemic before a news briefing at the Los Angeles Jewish Home in Reseda, Calif. Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti says a lot of pandemic deaths could have been prevented in California if the state had focused earlier on vaccinating people in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Garcetti also said Friday, March 19, 2021, the federal and state governments haven't given local officials like him enough freedom to inoculate who they feel are most at risk. (Hans Gutknecht/The Orange County Register via AP, File)
BERLIN — The European Union’s executive arm is increasing its pressure on pharmaceutical companies to speed up their vaccine delivery to the continent as virus numbers are rising again in many member countries.
The European Commission said Saturday that AstraZeneca in particular could face export bans to countries outside the EU if it didn’t quickly deliver the promised amount of vaccines to the 27-nation bloc.
“We have the possibility to ban planned exports,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Saturday.
“This is a message to AstraZeneca: You fulfill your part of the deal toward Europe before you start to deliver to other countries,” von der Leyen said in an interview with German media group Funke.
Von der Leyen said the contract between the EU and AstraZeneca clearly regulates how much vaccines the EU gets from AstraZeneca’s plants inside the EU and in Britain.
However, von der Leyen added, “we didn’t get anything from the Brits while we are delivering vaccines to them.”
She said the commission had sent a “formal reminder” to AstraZeneca regarding this issue.
AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine is one of three vaccines that’s approved in the EU. However, its usage has been overshadowed by several problems, including a slow start, recurring delivery problems and a temporary ban for several days earlier this week in many of the bloc’s member countries after reports of blood clots in some recipients of the vaccine.
Most countries in the EU resumed giving shots of AstraZeneca again Friday as infection numbers were spiking again across the continent and AstraZeneca’s vaccine, too, is seen as critical to ending the coronavirus pandemic.
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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
— As vaccinations lag, Italy's elderly again pay the price.
— Brazil vaccine drive faces challenges in remote communities.
— US clears 100M vaccinations, President Biden next aims for 200M
— Happiness Report: World shows resilience in face of COVID19
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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has tested positive for the coronavirus, two days after he received his first vaccine dose.
Dr. Faisal Sultan, Khan’s special assistant on health, said Saturday the prime minister has quarantined himself at his private home on a hilltop in the Islamabad suburbs.
There has been a spike in COVID-19 in the capital and in eastern and northern Pakistan where authorities have reported 42 new deaths and 3,876 new cases of COVID-19 during past 24 hours across the country, taking the total deaths to 13,799 and total infected cases to more than 623,000.
Since February, Pakistan has been using a COVID-19 vaccine donated by neighboring China. Health workers have been vaccinated and now older people are receiving the jab.
Media reports say a private Pakistani pharmaceutical company has imported 50,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, but it was unclear at what price the vaccine will be available to people.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says a lot of pandemic deaths could have been prevented in California if the state had focused earlier on vaccinating people in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Garcetti also said Friday the federal and state governments haven’t given local officials like him enough freedom to inoculate who they feel are most at risk.
Garcetti and Gov. Gavin Newsom are fellow Democrats and close friends. And while the mayor didn’t name Newsom, his comments ultimately are criticism of the governor and his initial tightly constrained approach to vaccinating residents by age and profession.
Newsom has since pivoted and set aside 40% of all doses for people in the state’s poorest areas.
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WASHINGTON -- The White House is canceling the annual Easter Egg Roll for the second straight year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A spokesman for first lady Jill Biden said Friday the White House will mark the holiday by sending out 2021 commemorative Easter Egg Roll eggs in the coming days to vaccination sites and local hospitals.
President Rutherford B. Hayes started the tradition in 1878.
There have been a few other times when the event was either moved off the White House grounds or cancelled. During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson suspended the Egg Roll, and Franklin Roosevelt did the same during World War II. President Harry Truman scratched the Egg Roll from 1948 to 1952, because of food rationing and renovations at the White House.
President Dwight Eisenhower restored the event in 1953.
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ATLANTA — President Joe Biden has paid a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and used the appearance to celebrate his administration reaching the benchmark of injecting 100 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine since his inauguration.
Biden met with scientists at the CDC in Atlanta on Friday to express his gratitude for their work trying to stop the coronavirus, while also learning about variants of the virus and the unfolding medical situation.
Biden pumped his fist as the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said the 100 million vaccine-threshold had been reached.
The president told CDC staff: “We owe you a gigantic debt of gratitude and we will for a long, long long time. You are the army, you are the navy, the marines, the coast guard ... you are the frontline troops.”
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PHOENIX -- Arizona’s top health official says state-run outdoor vaccination sites will switch to nighttime operations or shut down next month in anticipation of hotter temperatures.
State Department of Health Services Director Cara Christ said Friday that officials are already eying indoor venues to replace the parking lot operations at State Farm Stadium in Glendale and Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
The state has already identified a site in Mesa that will replace the vaccination clinic at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.
The University of Arizona site in Tucson, however, will continue administering vaccines outdoors.
State Farm Stadium will only give out doses between the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 a.m. starting April 4.
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BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany will have to apply an “emergency brake” to reverse some recent relaxations of pandemic restrictions as coronavirus infections accelerate.
Germany’s national disease control center says new infections are growing exponentially as the more contagious COVID-19 variant first detected in Britain has become dominant in the country.
Under an agreement with state governors two weeks ago, Merkel is supposed to reimpose restrictions in regions where the number of new weekly cases rises above 100 per 100,000 inhabitants. The nationwide average stood at 95.6 on Friday.
Merkel said that “unfortunately, we will have to make use of this emergency brake.”
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ROME — Italian Premier Mario Draghi says Italy won’t hesitate to adopt its own vaccine strategy -- including evaluating the Russian vaccine Sputnik on its own -- if the Europe Union’s response is not adequate.
Speaking Friday evening, Draghi emphasized that European coordination has “great added value,” but said that if the response regarding the health of Italians wasn’t working “then we need to go on our own.”
Italy’s premier defended the decision to join Germany and France in temporarily halting use of the AstraZeneca vaccine while European regulators ran additional checks, despite the possibility that may discourage some people from accepting the Anglo-Swedish vaccine. The 73-year-old premier said he would take that vaccine himself when his age group’s turn arrives.
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WASHINGTON — The United States has cleared President Joe Biden’s goal of injecting 100 million coronavirus shots, more than a month before his target date of his 100th day in office.
This as the president prepared to set his sights higher in the nationwide vaccination effort. The nation is now administering about 2.5 million shots per day. Biden, who promised to set a new goal for vaccinations next week, suggested the possibility of setting a 200 million dose goal by his 100th day in office.
He told reporters Friday, “We may be able to double it.” His comments come as the U.S. is on pace to have enough of the three currently authorized vaccines of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson&Johnson to cover the entire adult population just 10 weeks from now.
The pace is likely to dramatically rise later this month with an expected surge in supply of the vaccines, putting a 200 million dose goal within reach.
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BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Legislature has voted to shut down for several weeks due to an outbreak of the coronavirus.
At least six of the 70 House members have tested positive for the illness in the last week, and there are fears a highly contagious variant of COVID-19 is in the Statehouse.
Four of those who tested positive are Republicans. Another Republican lawmaker is self-isolating. The chamber has a super-majority of 58 Republicans, most of whom rarely wear masks. All the Democratic lawmakers typically wear masks.
Three of the infected lawmakers had participated in debates on the House floor this week. Lawmakers in the House and Senate made the decision despite significant unfinished business, including setting budgets and pushing through a large income tax cut.
Two senators had contracted the coronavirus but have recovered and returned to the 35-member Senate.
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PORTLAND, Ore. — Gov. Kate Brown announced she’ll accelerate Oregon’s COVID-19 vaccine eligibility timeline to allow vulnerable populations to receive shots ahead of May 1.
That’s when all adults will become eligible. Also on Monday, counties that have largely completed vaccinating residents who are 65 or older can begin administering shots to the next eligible groups, along with migrant and seasonal farmworkers working in the county.
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