WHO urges to speed up vaccination in Europe

Accelerating coronavirus vaccination is critical as the number of new cases across Europe keeps growing, the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Europe said in a statement.

Report informs, citing TASS, that, according to the office director, Hans Kluge, vaccines are the best way out of a pandemic.

"They not only work but are very effective in preventing infection. However, the introduction of these vaccines is extremely slow. And while coverage remains low, we need to use the same public health and social protection measures that we have applied in the past to compensate for the non-adherence to the [vaccine] schedule. Let me be clear: we must accelerate this process by ramping up production, lowering barriers to vaccine administration, and using all the vials [of drugs] we have in stock," Kluge said.

So far, only 10% of the region's population has received the first shots of the vaccine, and 4% has both.

A total of 27 countries in the region have introduced partial or full lockdowns, and 21 have night curfews. Over the past two weeks, 23 countries have tightened restrictions, 13 countries have mitigated restrictions, and nine more intend to do so.