Over 100 million vaccines have been administered in the European Union as of Wednesday, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced during a statement.
Of these vaccinations, more than a quarter are second doses, which means that more than 27 million Europeans have been fully vaccinated.
“I am happy to say that today we reached a target of 100 million vaccinations in the European Union. This is a milestone that we can be proud of,” said von der Leyen.
Related News
- Vaccination rollout: How Belgium is keeping up with its neighbours
- Travelling with 'Covid passport' possible from end of June, says Reynders
She added that the continent is in a race against time, and “the faster we reach the target of vaccinating 70% of the adult population in Europe, the better the chances we have of containing the virus," adding that vaccination is picking up speed in Europe.
Today we have reached 100 million vaccinations in the EU. A milestone we can be proud of!
We are also accelerating the delivery of vaccines. We spare no effort to ensure that Europeans can be vaccinated as fast as possible. #StrongerTogether https://t.co/eK09vYhcnG — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) April 14, 2021
During the statement, she also announced that vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and BioNTech will bring forward their delivery of 50 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine for the continent to April.
“These doses were initially foreseen for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2021, but now they will become available in the second quarter. This will bring the total doses delivered by the companies to 250 million in the second quarter,” said von der Leyen.
She added that these doses will be distributed based on the population of the member states, and that “this will substantially help consolidate the rollout of vaccination campaigns.”
For Belgium, the Taskforce Vaccination assumed this could result in 1.28 million extra doses over the next two months, according to reports from VRT News.
This could help partly make up for the temporary delay of vaccine deliveries from Johnson & Johnson, which announced on Tuesday that it would be halting deliveries after six cases of blood clots came to light in the US.
Von der Leyen added that the Union entered new negotiations with the companies on Wednesday for a third contract, which will foresee the delivery of 1.8 billion additional doses of the vaccine over a period of 2022 and 2023.
As of Tuesday, the EU member states have received over 126 million doses of vaccines.
Lauren Walker
The Brussels Times
