Boris Johnson rejects EU's claims of COVID-19 vaccine blocking

Recently, the European Council chief Charles Michel claimed that the UK has imposed a vaccine export ban. However, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has now rejected these claims.

"Let me be clear: we have not blocked the export of a single Covid-19 vaccine or vaccine components," Boris Johnson told the parliament. "This pandemic has put us all on the same side in the battle for global health. We oppose vaccine nationalism in all its forms."

The PM's clarification has come a few hours after Britain summoned the European Union's UK delegation and penned a letter to Charles Michel over his claim.

Also read | UK summons EU delegation representative over 'completely false' vaccine claim

Michel had claimed that "the United Kingdom and the United States have imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced on their territory."

While it was reported that Michel back-tracked on his claim, UK's foreign secretary Dominic Raab set he wanted to set the record straight and deny these accusations.

"I wanted to set the record straight. The UK government has not blocked the export of a single COVID-19 vaccine or vaccine components," Raab said. "Any references to a UK export ban or any restrictions on vaccines are completely false. We are all facing this pandemic together."

The claim came more than a month after the UK started its mass inoculation drive against the deadly coronavirus. Till now, more than 22.5 million people have received a jab of the Covid vaccines — making it one of the highest numbers in the world.

While the UK is hopeful of achieving its target, the European Union countries are still struggling and the EU has also blamed the popular AstraZeneca firm for this delay due to its failure to fulfil the set orders.