Updated 11am

Europe's race to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines must accelerate to catch up to scientific breakthroughs and outpace emerging variants, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

"We underestimated the difficulty related to mass production. Normally, it takes five to 10 years to produce a new vaccine. We did it in 10 months. This is a huge scientific success, and we should be rightly proud -- but in a way, science has outstripped industry," she told the European Parliament. 

In her first public admission to Europeans -- outside of some select media interviews -- von der Leyen said her Commission had made missteps in procuring vaccines on behalf all EU countries.

But she defended the overall strategy.

"We were late to authorise. We were too optimistic when it came to massive production. And perhaps we were too confident that what we ordered would actually be delivered on time," she said.

But to have allowed Europe's wealthiest countries to grab vaccines for themselves and leave others in the cold "would have been, I think, the end of our community," she said.

'We got it right' 

There were lessons to be learnt, von der Leyen told the session, chaired by First Vice President Roberta Metsola.

They included getting more data shared between clinics in EU countries, improving regulations to allow the European Medicines Agency to move faster in authorising vaccines, and especially to clear industrial bottlenecks to vaccine production.

"Industry must adapt to the pace of science," she said, noting that vaccines can contain as many as 400 ingredients and manufacturing involve as many as 100 companies.

A vaccine production task force under internal market commissioner Thierry Breton was charged with that mission, she said.

"We're dealing with completely new mRNA vaccines never manufactured at scale before. One of the current bottlenecks is, for example, linked to synthetic molecules... we need more coordination on the supply of key ingredients."

Von der Leyen warned that European scientists do not yet know if the vaccines will be effective against new mutant strains of the virus that are emerging.

"But we do know these variants will continue to emerge. And we do know that we need to anticipate and prepare immediately," she warned.

She also said deeply regretted an aborted bid by the Commission last month to try to restrict vaccines being transported into Britain's territory of Northern Ireland as part of a bitter row with Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which has failed to deliver vaccine doses it promised to the EU.

But she stressed that "in the end, we got it right" and a hastily set-up EU vaccine export control scheme would not "restrict companies that are honouring their contracts with the European Union" and vaccines to most of the bloc's neighbours would be unhindered.

The Commission, she emphasised, "will do its utmost to protect the peace of Northern Ireland, just as it has done throughout the entire Brexit process".

Pressures across the EU

The resurgence of infections across the continent is adding to the pressure on EU leadership.

A stricter lockdown will be imposed in Greece from Thursday -- in particular in the Athens region -- said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, warning that his country was facing a third COVID-19 wave.

Wary of infection numbers exploding again, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will seek to extend strict curbs at least until the end of February as fatigue grows with the partial lockdown in Europe's top economy.

The heaviest snow in years also added to woes in Europe with transport and infrastructure hit in Germany and Britain.

Some coronavirus vaccination centres in England were forced to close -- including major hubs in Ipswich and Colchester.

No breakthrough on virus origin 

A much-anticipated World Health Organization inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus wrapped up its mission in China on Tuesday. They failed to identify which animal may have passed it to humans.

The experts said there was "no indication" the virus was circulating in the ground-zero city of Wuhan before December 2019, when the first official cases were recorded.

WHO expert Peter Ben Embarek also scotched a controversial theory that the virus had leaked from a Wuhan lab, calling it "extremely unlikely".

China has been ramping up efforts to highlight its role in overcoming the pandemic, including the development of COVID-19 vaccines that have helped start shots in many parts of the world -- including hard-hit South America.

Peru on Tuesday began its immunisation programme with 300,000 doses of the vaccine developed by China's Sinopharm.

Argentina, meanwhile, said it had given emergency authorisation to the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, following its approval of Russia's Sputnik V jab.

Bolivia has also been using Sputnik V as it battles a surge in infections, although health workers in its worst-hit region began a two-day strike  Tuesday to demand a lockdown.

And in hard-hit Brazil, businesses and non-profit groups announced a plan to speed up the government's troubled immunisation drive, with the goal of vaccinating the entire country by September.

Valentine's Day worries 

Along with mass vaccinations, researchers and engineers around the world are searching for other ways to help end the pandemic and return life to normal -- especially international travel.

Tech-savvy Estonia is working on a pilot project with the WHO on how a globally recognised electronic vaccine certificate might work, including addressing concerns about security and privacy.

A more immediate concern for authorities in many countries this week is Valentine's Day, with fears that the upcoming celebrations could lead to a surge in infections.

Authorities in Thailand's capital Bangkok announced the city would not register marriages on Valentine's Day, a popular day for weddings.

In Brussels, however, where restaurants are closed, some hotels have converted rooms into private dining salons for two.

"We're over the moon about being here tonight, just like in a restaurant," said Marine Deroo, a 34-year-old who tried out the concept ahead of Valentine's Day.