The European Union said it has hit its target of fully vaccinating 70% of adults against Covid-19 by the end of summer—albeit with wide variations between different countries—showing how the bloc’s vaccination campaign has gathered momentum after a slow start earlier in the year.
But the World Health Organization has warned the pace of vaccinations in the continent now appears to be faltering, and that data show big differences in vaccine coverage between different countries, leaving parts of Europe at risk of fresh outbreaks and new restrictions to step the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant of the virus.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Tuesday that more than 256 million people in the 27-member bloc have received two doses of vaccine, equivalent to 70% of the adult population. In the U.S., 63% of people 18 or over are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.K. has fully vaccinated 77% of those aged 16 and over.
Of the EU’s total population of around 447 million people, just under 58% have been fully vaccinated, according to the University of Oxford’s Our World in Data project. That compares with 52% of the total U.S. population and 63% in the U.K.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the 70% milestone “a great achievement which really shows what we can do when we work together.”
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Originally Appeared Here