WHO has called the slowness of COVID-19 vaccination in Europe unacceptable and worrying

The World Health Organization (WHO) criticized Thursday the “unacceptable” slowness of vaccination against covid-19 in Europe, a continent which has suffered from the “most worrying” epidemic situation for “months”.

“The slowness of vaccination prolongs the pandemic”, regrets the European section of the WHO in a statement, in which it underlines that the number of new cases in Europe has risen sharply in the past five weeks.

“Vaccines are the best way to overcome the pandemic. Not only do they work, but they are also very effective in limiting infections. However, the deployment of these vaccines is unacceptably slow ”, criticized the director of WHO Europe, Hans Kluge, quoted in the statement.

“I’ll be clear: we need to speed up the process by scaling up production, reducing barriers to vaccine delivery and using all the doses we have in stock.” he claimed.

“Currently, the regional situation has been the most worrying for several months,” adds the official.

En la zona Europa de la WHO –que incluye medio centenar de países, incluidos Rusia y varios Estados de Asia central – el número de decesos por covid-19 superó los 24,000 la semana pasada y se acerca “rápidamente” al millón, según the organization.

The number of new weekly cases was 1.6 million, whereas it had fallen below one million five weeks ago, underlines the WHO.

Likewise, China faces increasing pressure to investigate the origin of covid-19, after the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) revived the theory based on the fact that the virus could have escaped from a laboratory in the city of Wuhan.

A WHO report Working with Chinese experts, published Tuesday, the hypothesis that the virus escaped from a lab was highly unlikely, claiming that covid-19 was likely transmitted from bats to humans via an intermediate animal.

China welcomed the report, seeing it as confirmation of its treatment of the investigation. following accusations that he tried to delay and then restrain him.

The report also initially appeared to support China’s staunch rejection of theories that the pandemic could have been triggered by a leak from a virology lab in Wuhan, the central city where the virus first emerged.

However, the United States and thirteen other countries on Tuesday expressed “concern” over the report on the origin of covid-19 and called for more “transparency” in subsequent phases of the study.

In this regard, the Director-General of WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, on Tuesday reopened the theory of the virus’ leak from a laboratory, as he expressed concern about the level of access to cases that China provided to experts during their visit to Wuhan in January.

“During my discussions with the team, they expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data”Tedros said.

He called for “full and timely data exchange” in future research.

Tedros also said that although experts concluded that the lab leak was the “least likely” hypothesis, this theory needed further study.

“I don’t think that assessment was comprehensive enough,” Tedros said of the possibility of a leak.

“It requires more research, possibly with additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am prepared to deploy.”

Tedros then pointed out that no theory had yet been ruled out.

“Let me make it clear that as far as WHO is concerned, all assumptions remain on the table”, He said.

The pandemic has killed nearly 2.8 million people worldwide since it emerged in Wuhan at the end of 2019.

Throughout the pandemic, China has developed theories that the virus could have emerged outside its borders or been imported in frozen foods.

China has come under heavy criticism from the Donald Trump administration and other Western countries for delaying access to WHO experts.

The Joe Biden administration continued to be concerned about China’s handling of the investigation.

(With information from AFP)

KEEP READING: