French President Emmanuel Macron announced a nationwide four-week lockdown, closing schools and business, in the latest and alarming sign that Europe is yet again losing control of the pandemic. “We did everything we could to make these decisions as late as possible, when they became strictly necessary. That is now,” Macron said. New variants make the virus “more contagious and deadlier.” The French leader implored the nation to make an extra effort as the lockdown comes into force on Saturday. Restrictions will be flexible this weekend, during the Easter holidays, to allow people to relocate within regions. Seventy-one percent of French said they approved of the decision to extend restrictions, according to a snap Harris International poll.
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ZURICH Europe’s rollout of vaccinations against COVID-19 is “unacceptably slow,” the World Health Organization’s European head said on Thursday, raising concern that delays in giving shots could prolong the pandemic as cases of variants spread.
Only 10% of the region’s population have received one vaccine dose, and 4% have completed a full course, Hans Kluge said.
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Try refreshing your browser, or WHO s Kluge says European COVID-19 vaccine campaign is unacceptably slow Back to video
“The rollout of these vaccines is unacceptably slow,” he said in a statement. .”.. We must speed up the process by ramping up manufacturing, reducing barriers to administering vaccines, and using every single vial we have in stock, now.”
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01 Apr 2021 - 22:52
People walk past a Pfizer sign amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 1, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
Reuters
The COVAX facility to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries faces a serious challenge to meet demand, while experts examining the origins of the coronavirus first identified in China will follow up on an initial report released this week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference.
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EUROPE The European Union has asked India to allow it to buy 10 million doses of AstraZeneca s COVID-19 vaccine from Serum Institute of India, a government official told Reuters.
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