WHO: Europe’s vaccination programme ‘unacceptable’
The World Health Organization criticised the rollout of coronavirus vaccines in Europe as being "unacceptably slow" yesterday as France went back into lockdown.
The WHO said the situation is more worrying than it has been for several months, vaccination campaigns in much of Europe hit by delays and the number of infections is rising.
"Vaccines present our best way out of this pandemic... However, the rollout of these vaccines is unacceptably slow" and is prolonging the pandemic in the wider Europe region, WHO director for Europe Hans Kluge said.
"We must speed up the process by ramping up manufacturing, reducing barriers to administering vaccines, and using every single vial we have in stock, now," he added.
Madrid yesterday halted Covid-19 vaccinations at health centres for four days so medical staff can rest over the Easter holiday, despite pleas from the national government not to halt the fight against surging infections. The shutdown came as the country scrambles to make up for lost time in its national vaccination plan due to supply shortfalls. Like other European Union nations, Spain has had a slow vaccinerolloutthatauthorities blame on vaccine shortages. Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday to Catholics, was a public holiday in the Madrid region, and its health centres - which are inoculating people over 80 and those unable to care for themselves - stayed closed. They reopen on Monday.
As of yesterday, Spain had fully vaccinated 2.6 million people, or almost 10 per cent of a target group of 27.4 million that the government aims to inoculate by the end of September. That is only 5.5 per cent of the nation's total population. Spain has seen more than 75,000 deaths in the pandemic and the country’s daily number of new Covid-19 infections has edged higher in recent weeks. Meanwhile France's prime minister defended new nationwide measures that include closing schools for at least three weeks and putting in place a monthlong domestic travel ban. Prime Minister Jean Castex said the government has acted "consistently and pragmatically".