European nations’ COVID-19 vaccination programs are “unacceptably slow,” and risk-prolonging, a senior World Health Organization official said Thursday.
Only 10% of Europe’s population have received at least one dose, with 4% of those have been fully vaccinated.
The European Union has only a 5.6% first-vaccination rate, even lower than the average, compared to Britain’s 46%.
WHO said that infections are spreading in every age group except 80 and older, warning against a false sense of security.
There were 1.6 million new cases and nearly 24,000 deaths in its European region last week. The 27-nation European Union has counted over 612,000 virus-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, and if European nations like Britain, Russia, Switzerland and others are counted, Europe has seen over 928,000 virus deaths during the pandemic.