The Israeli government is trying to cancel its order for millions of doses of the Oxford – AstraZeneca COVID vaccine, amid concerns over the vaccine’s safety, Galei Tzahal reported Wednesday morning.
According to the report, over the past few days, Israel has been in contact with AstraZeneca, requesting a cancellation for its order of 10 million doses of the UK-developed COVID vaccine.
Thus far, however, AstraZeneca has refused to nix the entire order, but is considering a deal whereby the cancelled order would be sold to a third-party state.
In the meantime, the legal consequences of a cancellation of the entire order are being assessed.
On Monday, 72,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were delivered to the Palestinian Authority, via Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport. The doses were purchased for the PA by the World Health Organization.
Israel ordered ten million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in late November 2020, after initially declining to place a direct order and planning on simply receiving its allocation of doses from the World Health Organization.