© European commission (audiovisual service)
– EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakidou began her tour of the lagging countries in Bulgaria, which is the latest in the EU in terms of vaccination rates.
The European Commission and member states in the Vaccine Supervisory Board are discussing how to help countries lagging behind in their vaccination campaigns, a European Commission spokesman said on Monday.
Bulgaria, Romania and Latvia lag far behind the EU average, where more than half of the population is already immunized with one dose and one in three is fully vaccinated. Bulgaria, which started the slowest in December, continues to be the last to be vaccinated in the EU, lagging even behind the latter.
“We are trying to understand the nature of the problems in order to help the countries that have to catch up,” said a spokesman for the European Commission.
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He added that “it is very important that people should want to be vaccinated” and that this requires “clearly, transparently and proactively” communicating the benefits of vaccines so as to overcome mistrust “in some parts and groups of society “.
“There is a lot of work to be done with and in the member states so that confidence in vaccines can be built,” the spokesman said.
He explained that EU Health Commissioner Stella Kiriakidou was touring countries at the bottom of the vaccination rankings “to understand the difficulties they face” and to assess “the extent to which the European Commission can offer support” to address the backlog.
Kyriakidou, who was in Sofia last week, will visit Greece this week, where 33.6% of the adult population is fully vaccinated, and France (25%).
According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, only 13.4% of Bulgarians are fully vaccinated and 15.8% are single-dose.
Vaccinated in Bulgaria are twice less than in Romania – 26.7% fully vaccinated and 29.1% with the first dose, and in Latvia – 25.4% and 33.4%, respectively, which are at the bottom of the European ranking.
A spokesman for the European Commission said Europe would reach its target of 70% vaccinated by the end of July, with 357.7 million doses of vaccine delivered to the EU, of which 310.7 million had been delivered. The average vaccination rate in the EU is 25 million. per week.
First up are Malta, Hungary, Finland and Belgium, which have 70%, 66%, 65% and 64% of the population vaccinated, respectively.
According to the information of the government portal coronavirus.bg, only 748,826 Bulgarians are fully immunized, and the differences between the districts are significant. Most vaccinated with two doses are in Sofia – 226 643. In Vidin region they are only 6608.
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