Germany ’s government on Sunday threatened legal action against laboratories failing to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the European Union on schedule, amid tension over delays to deliveries from AstraZeneca . “If it turns out that companies have not respected their obligations, we will have to decide the legal consequences,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told German daily Die Welt . “No company can favour another country over the EU after the fact.” There has been growing tension in recent weeks between European leaders and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which has fallen behind on promised delivers of its Covid-19 vaccine. What if Covid-19 vaccines aren’t enough for herd immunity? The company said it could now only deliver one-quarter of the doses originally promised to the bloc for the first quarter of the year because of problems at one of its European factories. Brussels has implicitly accused AstraZeneca of giving preferential treatment to Britain in the delivery of its vaccine, at the expense of the EU. Brazil set to receive millions of AstraZeneca doses via WHO Brazil will receive between 10 million and 14 million doses of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine starting in mid-February through the World Health Organization ’s Covax programme, according to the country’s health ministry. Brazil has had 58,462 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 1,279 deaths from Covid-19, the ministry said on Saturday. The South American country has now registered 9,176,975 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 223,945, according to ministry data, in the world’s third worst outbreak outside the United States and India and its second-deadliest. The health ministry said it had received a letter from the WHO about the delivery of the vaccine, which AstraZeneca developed in partnership with Oxford University. On Friday, Brazilian health regulator Anvisa said that AstraZeneca had applied for full regulatory approval, a positive note for the country’s difficult vaccine roll-out. The submission, the first of its kind in Brazil, was made by the federally funded Fiocruz Institute, which will manufacture the British vaccine locally. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim leaves hospital Billionaire Carlos Slim has returned to his home in Mexico City after being hospitalised with Covid-19, a family member said. Slim is recovering and recuperating well, his son-in-law and spokesman Arturo Elias Ayub said in a message on Saturday. Latin America’s richest man, who turned 81 this week, was hospitalised in Mexico City’s Instituto Nacional de Nutricion, where he was experiencing mild symptoms, Elias Ayub said previously. Slim is the world’s 25th-richest person with a net worth of US$51.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The bulk of his wealth comes from telecommunications giant America Movil SAB. Mexico overtook India in total Covid-19 deaths on Thursday, making its outbreak the third-most deadly worldwide. On Friday, Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador assured the public that he has passed the “critical stage” of his own coronavirus infection and is recovering. The president, who’s known as AMLO, spoke in a video posted online late Friday, marking his first appearance since he revealed that he tested positive for the virus late Sunday. Police chief accuses German airlines of breaking Covid-19 rules Germany’s federal police chief has accused airlines of failing to stick to coronavirus containment rules in comments published on Sunday. “In the last six days alone, the federal police have identified around 600 violations by aviation companies,” Dieter Romann told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag . Passengers from regions with high coronavirus levels or where mutations have been identified have entered Germany without a digital registration or without showing a current negative coronavirus test result, despite rules that airlines must check for these before take-off, he said. “It is irresponsible,” Romann said, adding that the lack of controls are also a reason for the entry bans in place. “Airlines are now threatened with fines from health authorities of up to €25,000 [about US$30,000] per violation and passenger.” Since Saturday, Germany has banned entry from countries where virus variants that appear more contagious are spreading. Scientists warn of long fight as mutations undercut vaccine optimism The list includes Britain, Ireland, Portugal, South Africa and Brazil. From Sunday, the African nations of Lesotho and eSwatini will be added. Airlines, railways, buses and shipping companies are banned from transporting passengers from those areas until February 17. Exceptions apply for Germans and foreigners who live in Germany as well as for transit passengers and the transport of goods. Reporting by Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg, Reuters, DPA