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WHO European Director Hans Kluge: "ramp up production, reduce the obstacles to administering the vaccines and now use every single vial"
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IDA GULDBAEK ARENTSEN / AFP
In Great Britain, more than 45 percent of the population have already received a first vaccination against the coronavirus, in the rest of Europe, on the other hand, vaccination is much slower.
There is a lack of vaccines, some countries, including Germany, recently advised younger people against the active ingredient from the manufacturer AstraZeneca.
The European Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) is now complaining that the slow vaccination campaigns in Europe are dragging out the corona pandemic.
The provision of the vaccines was "unacceptably slow," said WHO Regional Director Hans Kluge.
The sluggish distribution of vaccines in Europe leads to an "extension" of the pandemic.
"Let me be clear: we need to speed up the process by ramping up production, lowering the barriers to vaccine delivery, and now using every single vial we have in stock."
WHO is pushing for stricter measures - and warns of new mutations
As long as the level of vaccinations remains low, the same social and health corona measures as in the past would have to be used, said Kluge.
So you have to compensate for the delays in vaccination plans.
Vaccinations, along with continued action, would ultimately bring the pandemic to an end, said the WHO Regional Director.
The WHO emergency coordinator for Europe, Dorit Nitzan, warned of the emergence of new mutants if the speed at which the coronavirus is currently spreading is not reduced.
"The likelihood of new variants of concern increases with the rate at which the virus replicates and spreads," she said.
It is therefore crucial to curb virus transmission "through basic disease control measures".
WHO Europe counts more than 50 countries in the European region, including Great Britain and Israel, where more than half of the population has already been vaccinated twice against the virus.
In the entire WHO Europe area, however, only around 10 percent of the total population have received their first vaccination dose, and only 4 percent are fully vaccinated.
Accelerating vaccination is now crucial.
The number of new infections in the European WHO region is increasing in every age group with the exception of those over 80, said Kluges Büro.
With a total of 1.6 million new cases and almost 24,000 related deaths, the majority of countries saw an increase in infections over the past week.
The situation is more worrying than it has been for several months.
The number of cases in Europe is increasing, in some cases extremely
Recently, several countries, including Poland and France, had registered a massive increase in the number of corona cases.
In Poland, 35,251 new infections were recently registered within 24 hours, a new high.
Many hospitals are working to the limit of their capacity.
France had recently imposed a night curfew for the third time since the pandemic began.
From the weekend, people in France are also not allowed to go further than ten kilometers from their home for walks or sports.
fek / dpa / Reuters / AFP
