BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission estimates European Union countries will receive about 900 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the second half of the year, compared to nearly 1 billion shots it expected a month ago, an internal document showed.
The document, which the EU executive shared with EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, shows the bloc expects to get about 500 million doses in the third quarter of the year from four vaccine makers: Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
Another 400 million shots are expected in the last three months of the year, according to the document, which was seen by Reuters.
In the first half of the year, the EU has received 424 million doses, the document says, showing deliveries expected until June 27.
In another internal document, seen by Reuters and presented to EU leaders at the end of May, the EU Commission had estimated 980 million doses would arrive in the second half of the year, of which 529 million in the third quarter.
It also had expected 519 million vaccines in the first six months of the year, nearly 100 million more than it has actually received.
The small drop in the third quarter is mostly caused by a reduction in supplies due from Johnson & Johnson, which has faced production problems.
Pfizer, which is the main supplier of vaccines to the EU, is forecast to deliver slightly fewer vaccines in the last quarter of the year than the EU expected in May, the documents show.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, writing by Francesco Guarascio, Editing by Gabriela Baczynska and Mark Heinrich)
