Enough doses of Covid-19 vaccine doses member states have been delivered by the European Union for complete vaccination of at least 70 per cent of the adult population of the bloc. This was announced Saturday by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in a statement.
In a tweet on May 9, Von der Leyen had said that the EU was going in the right direction to achieve its aim of vaccinating 70 per cent of the adult population of the region by this summer. On Saturday, she urged EU member states to enhance the speed of vaccinations and added that the EU will be distributing about 500 million vaccine doses throughout the the union by Sunday.
"The European Union has kept its word. This weekend we have delivered enough vaccines to member states to be in a position to vaccinate fully at least 70% of the EU adults this month," von der Leyen said in a video statement.
"But COVID-19 is not yet defeated. We are prepared to deliver more vaccines, including against new variants," said von der Leyen. She had been severely criticised earlier at the beginning of this year over her failure to ensure that pharma companies delivered the vaccines according to contracts with the EU,
The long term target of the EU is to have in possession enough number of Covid-19 vaccines to be able to immunise the entire population of the bloc by the September. Confidence was also expressed by the EU in May about possessing enough vaccines and making them available to the target communities and populations.
The EU was prepared to deliver more doses, including those vaccines that are effective against the new variants of the coronavirus, Von der Leyen added in her latest statement.
The EU is coordinating the purchasing Covid-19 vaccines on behalf of its member states and it has mostly relied on vaccines that have been developed by BioNTech and Pfizer even though it is also slated ot purchase vaccines from other companies too.
Nearly 40 million additional doses of the vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson had been ordered by EU countries, the Commission said last week.
The Commission expected that the dominant coronavirus strain in Europe this summer would be the new and highly contagious delta variant, the Commission has previously warned, citing projections made by the EU disease prevention agency.
According to some recent research, it has been found that the effectiveness of vaccines against symptomatic infection is reduced by the new delta variant of the coronavirus but it also found that there was high efficacy of the presently available vaccines in preventing serious illness and deaths if two doses of the vaccines are administered.
(Source:www.irishtimes.com)
In a tweet on May 9, Von der Leyen had said that the EU was going in the right direction to achieve its aim of vaccinating 70 per cent of the adult population of the region by this summer. On Saturday, she urged EU member states to enhance the speed of vaccinations and added that the EU will be distributing about 500 million vaccine doses throughout the the union by Sunday.
"The European Union has kept its word. This weekend we have delivered enough vaccines to member states to be in a position to vaccinate fully at least 70% of the EU adults this month," von der Leyen said in a video statement.
"But COVID-19 is not yet defeated. We are prepared to deliver more vaccines, including against new variants," said von der Leyen. She had been severely criticised earlier at the beginning of this year over her failure to ensure that pharma companies delivered the vaccines according to contracts with the EU,
The long term target of the EU is to have in possession enough number of Covid-19 vaccines to be able to immunise the entire population of the bloc by the September. Confidence was also expressed by the EU in May about possessing enough vaccines and making them available to the target communities and populations.
The EU was prepared to deliver more doses, including those vaccines that are effective against the new variants of the coronavirus, Von der Leyen added in her latest statement.
The EU is coordinating the purchasing Covid-19 vaccines on behalf of its member states and it has mostly relied on vaccines that have been developed by BioNTech and Pfizer even though it is also slated ot purchase vaccines from other companies too.
Nearly 40 million additional doses of the vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson had been ordered by EU countries, the Commission said last week.
The Commission expected that the dominant coronavirus strain in Europe this summer would be the new and highly contagious delta variant, the Commission has previously warned, citing projections made by the EU disease prevention agency.
According to some recent research, it has been found that the effectiveness of vaccines against symptomatic infection is reduced by the new delta variant of the coronavirus but it also found that there was high efficacy of the presently available vaccines in preventing serious illness and deaths if two doses of the vaccines are administered.
(Source:www.irishtimes.com)