Covid vaccine rollout 'unbearably slow' in Europe as cases rise: WHO warns
The World Health Organization has warned the Europe over its "unacceptably slow" vaccine rollout, saying the region's spike in coronavirus infections was "worrying".
"Vaccines present our best way out of this pandemic... However, the rollout of these vaccines is unacceptably slow" and is "prolonging the pandemic", WHO director for Europe Hans Kluge said in a statement on Thursday.
"We must speed up the process by ramping up manufacturing, reducing barriers to administering vaccines, and using every single vial we have in stock, now," he added.
The organization described Europe's virus situation as "more worrying than we have seen in several months."
Five weeks ago, the weekly number of new cases in Europe had dropped slightly to under one million, but the UN agency said over 1.6 million people contracted the disease in WHO Europe's 51 countries just last week, the sixth weekly rise in a row.
The surge was observed in every age group, except in people aged 80 or older which the organization said reflects "early signs of the impact of vaccination."
So far, just 10 percent of the region's total population have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and only four percent have been fully immunized.
Vaccination has begun in every Europe’s high-income country but in only 60 percent of lower-and lower-middle-income countries, according to the WHO.
The organization also said the total number of deaths in Europe "is fast approaching one million and the total number of cases about to surpass 45 million.”
It also warned the rapid spread of Covid-19 could increase the risk of new variants of concern developing.
"The likelihood of new variants of concern occurring increases with the rate at which the virus is replicating and spreading, so curbing transmission through basic disease control actions is crucial," Dorit Nitzan, WHO Europe's regional emergency director, said in the statement.
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