European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said that 70% of adult population in the European Union have fully received their vaccination.
“Today we reached an important milestone in our vaccination campaign. Seventy percent of adults in the EU fully received their vaccination. This means 250 million people are fully immunised,” EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen said in a video posted online.
Von der Leyen considered the number a “great achievement, which really shows what we can do when we work together.”
But she also cautioned the pandemic is not over.
She went on calling on Europeans to have vaccination a soon as possible to prevent new infections and the possible emergence of new variants.
“We need more Europeans to vaccinate. And we need to help the rest of the world vaccinate, too. We’ll continue supporting our partners.”
Earlier last week, The World Health Organization (WHO) expected that another 236,000 people could die from COVID-19 in Europe by December 1.
The health organisation raised the alarm over the rising infections and stagnating vaccine rates on the continent.
“Last week, there was an 11 percent increase in the number of deaths in the region – one reliable projection is expecting 236,000 deaths in Europe, by December 1,” WHO Europe director Hans Kluge said.
The warning comes as the WHO and UNICEF urged European countries to make teachers a priority group for vaccination. So schools can stay open throughout the pandemic.
The two organisations said teachers and other school staff must be primary target groups for national vaccination programmes.
They further added that all children aged 12 and over with underlying health conditions should also receive full vaccination.
