Moscow, Apr 1 (Agency) The World Health Organization (WHO) has criticized the “unacceptably slow” rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in Europe, adding that tough social distancing measures may still be required to curb the spread of the disease while vaccine coverage remains low. “Vaccines present our best way out of this pandemic. Not only do they work, they are also highly effective in preventing infection. However, the roll-out of these vaccines is unacceptably slow. And as long as coverage remains low, we need to apply the same public health and social measures as we have in the past, to compensate for delayed schedules,” Hans Henri Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, said in a press release.
Only 10 percent of the WHO European Region’s total population has received one COVID-19 vaccine shot, and just four percent have completed a full dosing regimen, the organization said. The United Kingdom is leading Europe in terms of vaccination coverage, as 30.9 million people, including more than 90 percent of adults aged 70 years and over, have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot. The European Union has faced criticism from several member states over the distribution of vaccines within the bloc. Most notably, the leaders of six EU countries, including the Czech Republic and Austria, complained of uneven distribution, calling for high-level talks to resolve the issue.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has so far given emergency use listing to vaccines produced by AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Wednesday said that his country was likely to place an order for Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, which is currently under an EMA rolling review, next week.