While the vaccination programs are idling in most of the countries of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen tries to reassure the populations by evoking an accelerated rate of deliveries as well as the close authorization of new products.
"We expect on average nearly 100 million doses per month in the second quarter, and a total of 300 million by the end of June", assures the President of the Commission in an interview with the German regional daily Stuttgarter Nachrichten.
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Covid-19: 30 million French people vaccinated by the end of June, promises the government
The head of the European executive expects a delivery of 50 million doses in March.
So far, the EU and its 448 million inhabitants have only received 51.5 million since the end of December.
Three vaccines have been authorized by the European authority, those of BioNTech / Pfizer, AstraZeneca / Oxford and Moderna.
On Thursday, the Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) is due to decide on Thursday whether to authorize Johnson & Johnson's product, which requires only one injection.
Russia's Sputnik V vaccine reached a key milestone for its deployment in the European Union last week, with the start of its review by the EMA.
Objective: two out of three Europeans vaccinated at the end of the summer
The European Commission is targeting 70% of Europeans vaccinated by the end of the summer, but criticism is raised against the slowness of immunization campaigns.
At least 41.4 million doses have been administered to about 28.6 million people, or 6.4% of the population, according to a count made by AFP on Monday at 12:30 GMT from official sources.
In addition, 12.8 million people received their second dose, or 2.9% of the population.
Germany in particular vaccinated an average of 203,000 people per day last week.
In total 6.2% of the population received at least one injection, which represents 7.6 million doses administered out of 10.4 million delivered.
In France, 5.7 million doses were administered on March 6 to 3.8 million people, or 5.6% of the population.
By comparison, the most advanced country, Israel, has already injected doses to more than 57% of its population.
And nearly 44% received both doses there.