EU leaders want to speed up launch after a slow start

LONDON – The European Union must be faster in its efforts to vaccinate people against the coronavirus, the 27 heads of state said on Thursday, as the region continues to struggle with a rugged deployment.

The EU has faced problems with production, delivery and administrative procedures in the deployment of Covid vaccines and has therefore struggled to catch up with the pace of inoculation seen elsewhere.

The European Commission said on Thursday it expects nearly 100 million doses of vaccine to be administered in the region by the end of the first quarter. It is then expected to reach about 500 million doses administered by the end of June.

“We urgently need to speed up the authorization, production and distribution of vaccines, as well as vaccination,” EU leaders said in a joint statement.

They are particularly concerned about the new variants of Covid, which are believed to be more infectious and have already been identified in European countries. A rapid vaccination process could help protect the population of the region before the virus mutates significantly.

To this end, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is working with pharmaceutical companies in an effort to avoid more bottlenecks in the delivery process and is looking to have more production plants on the continent.

“Currently, 41 industrial centers contribute to vaccine production here in Europe, but many more could join the effort. Therefore, we are strongly encouraging cooperation between industrial actors,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the Commission, who was a physician. he said at a press conference.

It remained on its initial target of vaccinating at least 70% of the EU adult population by the end of the summer.

However, the health emergence of coronavirus persists in Europe, and several countries have reported an increase in cases in recent days.

On Thursday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said the government was considering closing weekends in Paris and other parts of France. Meanwhile, in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of a possible third wave of infections if the current restrictions are removed too soon.

“We observe stable and declining trends (infection) in 20 countries, but in growing trends in about seven others,” von der Leyen said.

“At the same time, in fact, there is a growing Covid-19 fatigue among our citizens,” he noted, after about a year of strict social restrictions across the bloc.

Containment measures, such as the prevention of non-essential travel, are an additional challenge for the EU, given its policy of free movement of goods, people and services.

Representatives of major pharmaceutical companies involved in vaccine production Covid on Thursday told European lawmakers they were working 24 hours a day to develop and produce the vaccines.

The CEO of CureVac suggested that his vaccine could be approved in June. Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency is studying data from trials conducted by Johnson and Johnson and could issue market approval in a few weeks. So far, European regulators have approved AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer brushes.