The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is calling on European countries to vaccinate more quickly now that the delta variant is predicted to cause 90 percent of infections by the end of August.
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Individuals who have had only one shot are still at risk of infection and hospitalization as the variant is likely to circulate among the young population this summer. So said Andrea Ammon, director of ECDC. Not nice news, now that several Member States are thinking about relaxation.
ECDC’s model predicts that without maintaining current corona measures and an acceleration in vaccinations, we are likely to face a new wave of infections, deaths and hospitalizations similar to last fall.
Ammon asked the younger population that has not yet had a full vaccination to strictly adhere to the distance rules.
According to the latest data from ECDC, 33.9 percent of adults in Europe are fully vaccinated. 57.1 percent would have already received at least one dose.
“The delta variant is more contagious than other variants and we estimate that by the end of August this variant will be responsible for 90 percent of all Sars-CoV-2 infections in the European Union,” Ammon said. “Unfortunately, preliminary data show that the variant can also infect people who have already received one dose of a vaccine.”
The positive news is that two doses of all available vaccines in Europe “provide high protection against this variant and its consequences. But 30 percent of those over 80 and about 40 percent of those over 60 have not yet received a full vaccination.”
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