The European Union has hit its target of delivering enough coronavirus vaccine to cover 70 per cent of the adult population, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

The 27 EU member state governments are responsible for administering the vaccines to citizens — and some are working much faster than others — but von der Leyen stressed that: “The EU has kept its word.”

The EU joint vaccine purchasing scheme, run by von der Leyen's European Commission, has delivered 330 million BioNTech-Pfizer shots, 100m AstraZeneca, 50m from Moderna and 20m Johnson & Johnson.