These doses come on top of an already scheduled 195 million doses from BioNTech-Pfizer, bringing the total number of deliveries in the first quarter to 215 million, a commission statement said.

The commission and member states have also exercised an option to order more than 200 million BioNTech-Pfizer Covid-19 doses adapted for the Omicron variant and expect delivery from the second quarter of 2022.

These doses would bring the total number of deliveries by BioNTech-Pfizer to 650 million doses during 2022, the commission statement said.

Governments across Europe are struggling to curb a sharp rise in Covid-19 infections caused by the rapid spread of the newly discovered Omicron coronavirus variant.

On Dec 16, the European Commission had said that it has reached an agreement with Moderna to rush deliveries of the US company’s Covid-19 vaccine to Germany and other European Union member states.