The European Union confirmed that it was "ready to discuss" the US proposal to lift intellectual property protection for the emerging coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines, at a time when the epidemiological situation in India is getting darker, with a new record death toll recorded in the past 24 hours.

"The European Union is ready to discuss any proposal that would address the crisis in an effective and practical way," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

She added, "We are ready to discuss how the American proposal can achieve this goal," calling on all vaccine-producing countries to "allow their export."

The United States announced yesterday that it supports raising patents for vaccines, in an exceptional position that comes at a time when poor countries suffer from a large shortage of doses.

US Trade Representative Catherine Tye said that corporate intellectual property rights are important, but that her country "supports the waiver of that protection for vaccines."

"This is a global health crisis, and the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic call for exceptional measures to be taken," she added.

For his part, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Wednesday praised what he called "the historic decision."

New Zealand Minister for Agriculture Damian O'Connor said, "We very much welcome and strongly support the proposals for patenting vaccines. We are actively working with our partners to make progress on this file."

Huge returns

So far, US laboratories have mainly owned the patents, and they are generally opposed to this as it would deprive them of the huge financial returns their inventions would generate.

In a statement on Wednesday, the International Federation of Manufacturers and Pharmaceutical Societies said that the US decision was "disappointing."

Washington’s announcement comes at a time when the gap between poor and rich countries is increasing, in which vaccination campaigns are accelerating. In the United States, it will soon reach the segment of adolescents, and in Canada, children over the age of 12 years old, allowing the gradual lifting of health restrictions.

In Denmark, the epidemiological situation has come under control, cinemas, theaters and sports centers will be opened today, with the presentation of the "Corona Document", which is a health passport that proves a negative examination result for a period not exceeding 72 hours, or receiving the vaccine or cure from Corona, recently.

After the World Health Organization urged them to show solidarity in the field of vaccines, the G7 member states (the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Britain and Italy) discussed yesterday in London ways to increase their financial aid or share excess doses to help poor countries.

There are difficulties facing the international program, "COVAX" supported by the World Health Organization - which is distributing in particular the "AstraZeneca-Oxford" vaccine.

So far, it has only managed to deliver 49 million doses in 121 countries, in return for promises to deliver two billion doses within 2021.

412 thousand new infections were recorded in India within 24 hours (Anatolia)

Record numbers

In India, where the situation is getting worse, 412,000 new injuries and about 4,000 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, according to official figures published today, which raises the total to more than 230,000 deaths and 21 million injuries, a number that experts consider may be much higher.

The Central Bank announced the injection of $ 6.7 billion in soft loans to the health system, which is facing great difficulties in treating patients, some of whom die at the gates of hospitals.

On the other hand, Argentina (the sixth country in the list of the most affected by the epidemic in Latin America according to its population) recorded a new record in the number of deaths from the virus that killed 633 people in the last 24 hours.

The epidemic has killed more than 3.2 million people in the world since the WHO office in China reported the outbreak at the end of December 2019.