AstraZeneca is to cut deliveries of its Covid-19 vaccine to the EU by 60% in the first quarter of the year due to production problems, a senior official has told Reuters. The jab it developed with the University of Oxford is already in widespread use in the UK, but the European Union has not yet approved it. It is expected to make a decision by 29 January. AstraZeneca said in a statement to Agence-France Presse that if EU approval is granted, the “initial volumes will be lower than anticipated”. The company was expected to deliver to the 27 EU countries about 80m doses by the end of March but informed the EU of the reduction to 31m doses on Friday, the official, who was involved in the talks, said. The company had also agreed to deliver more than 80m doses in the second quarter, but on Friday was not able to indicate delivery targets for the April-June period due to the production issues. The issues were blamed on production problems at a vaccine factory in Belgium run by its partner Novasep. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is considered key to the global vaccination effort because it is cheaper to produce than rival efforts and can be stored at fridge temperature. The EU has so far has approved vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. While the coronavirus vaccines have been developed and approved at record-breaking speed, deliveries of the first batches have been smaller than many EU members had hoped. Pfizer has announced delays in shipments of its vaccine in the next few weeks owing to works at its main processing plant in Belgium. Pfizer has also warned UK shipments will be affected. EU countries have administered more than five million doses to citizens to date. The aim is to inoculate 70% of adults by the end of August.