More than a quarter of the population of the European Union has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, as announced by the European Commission on Tuesday. Over 9% of the EU's population is now fully vaccinated, according to a count by the Agence France-Presse.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted, "Vaccination is accelerating in Europe: We have just surpassed 150 million vaccines (...) We will have enough doses to vaccinate 70% of the adult population in the EU by July."
Specifically, 158.8 million doses have been administered to approximately 112.4 million people, representing 25.1% of the EU population, according to official figures compiled by AFP as of Tuesday afternoon. There are 41.9 million people who have received both vaccine doses or a single dose of Johnson & Johnson and are now fully vaccinated, equating to 9.4% of the population.
The Commission, responsible for vaccine orders on behalf of member states, is counting on delivering a total of at least 410 million doses in the second quarter (250 million doses from Pfizer/BioNTech, 35 million from Moderna, 55 million from Johnson & Johnson, and 70 million from AstraZeneca).
Brussels has faced sharp criticism for delays in vaccination campaigns in the EU due to the time taken for approval processes by regulatory bodies and AstraZeneca's delivery delays.
Despite the recent acceleration, the EU still lags behind the United States, which has fully vaccinated about 30% of its population, Israel (58%), and the UK (23%).
In France, as of May 3, approximately 22.82 million doses have been given to about 16.13 million people, or 23.9% of the population. Among them, 6.75 million are fully vaccinated (10% of the population). In Belgium, 3.99 million doses have been administered, and over 856,000 people are fully vaccinated (7.4% of the population).
