When the Covid-19 vaccines first appeared, trialed and authorized for emergency use in a record time, millions of people wanted to get protected from the fatal collateral damage that it causes.
But after nine months since the inoculation started in the West, a major slowdown has been noticed across the U.S. and Europe and experts are worried about this. This is because the Covid-19 restrictions that were imposed in the U.S. and some parts of Europe have been lifted and this has caused cases to surge.
“The stagnation in vaccine uptake in our region is of serious concern,” Dr. Hans Kluge, regional director of WHO’s European region, said in a press statement last week.
“Now that public health and social measures are being relaxed in many countries, the public’s vaccination acceptance is crucial if we are to avoid greater transmission, more severe disease, an increase in deaths and a bigger risk that new variants of concern will emerge.”
He added there had been 64 million confirmed cases and 1.3 million deaths in the region, which comprises 53 countries ranging from those in Western Europe to Russia and its surrounding countries. Kluge added that 33 countries in the region had reported a greater-than-10% increase in their 14-day case incidence rate.
