Italy and France fold over AstraZeneca jabs

Italy and France fold over AstraZeneca jabs: Mario Draghi and Emmanuel Macron vow to ‘quickly resume’ using the vaccine once European Medicines Agency gives final clearance

Italy and France have committed to ‘quickly’ resume inoculations of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine once the European regulator gives the all-clear. 

They are among a host of EU nations to have suspended use of the jab after some people it was administered to suffered blood clotting problems. 

Boris Johnson and the UK medical regulator has insisted the vaccine is safe and continues to roll it out at pace. 

And today Italian PM Mario Draghi spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron where the two leaders agreed they were ready to begin inoculating with the AstraZeneca product ‘quickly’ if the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives a green light on Thursday.

‘The preliminary statement today from EMA was positive,’ a statement from Draghi’s office said. 

This is a breaking news story. More to follow… 

Italian PM Mario Draghi

Italian PM Mario Draghi (right) spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron (left) on Tuesday