The European Union (EU) has reached its target of 70% of adults fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
The announcement was made on Tuesday by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Twitter.
The EU was aiming to vaccinate 70% of those over 18 by the end of the summer, or 256 million people.
But “we must go further!
More Europeans need to be vaccinated, ”said the head of the European executive.
In addition, "we must support vaccination in the rest of the world with our partners", she added, while the EU participates in particular in the Covax mechanism which aims to provide vaccines to the poorest countries.
70% of adults in EU are fully vaccinated.
I want to thank the many people making this great achievement possible.
But we must go further!
We need more Europeans to vaccinate.
And we need to help the rest of the world vaccinate, too.
We'll continue supporting our partners.
pic.twitter.com/VxdvZlrwYv
- Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 31, 2021
The European Commission, responsible for vaccine pre-orders to laboratories, already announced on July 27 that 70% of the adult population in the EU has received at least one dose.
Four vaccines have been authorized in the EU by the European Medicines Agency (EMA): Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca (two doses needed) and Johnson & Johnson (one injection).
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“We can be proud that our vaccine strategy has achieved its goal, with the participation of Member States and citizens,” commented Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
“But we can't stop there.
To be safe, we have to go beyond 70% because of the new variants, ”she warned.
"To get out of the pandemic, we must vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate", she insisted.
20% of adults vaccinated in Bulgaria, 85.5% in Ireland
The Delta variant, first identified in India and now dominant, is about 40% to 60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant.
People infected with the Delta variant are twice as likely to be hospitalized for Covid-19 as those infected with the Alpha variant, according to a British study published on Saturday.
The World Health Organization (WHO) fears that the pandemic will kill 236,000 more in Europe by December 1, expressing concern about the stagnation of the pace of vaccinations on the continent. The Health Commissioner stressed the need for the EU to narrow the "worrying gap" in vaccination rates between member states and to be ready for the injection of a new dose to boost immunity if " scientific data shows that this is the way to go ”.
In Bulgaria, the rate of fully vaccinated adults is around 20%. It is 32.8% in Romania, 49% in Slovakia and 58.1% in Poland, while it reaches 72.5% in France, 70.6% in Germany, 76.7% in Spain, 82.4 % in Portugal and 85.5% in Ireland, according to data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
