A vaccination (illustrative image).

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AFP

In Europe, none of the Twenty-Seven reached at the end of March the set target of vaccinating 80% of people over 80 years old, but the European Commission noted on Tuesday.

But the acceleration of vaccine deliveries will allow the EU to achieve "collective immunity" from Covid-19 this summer, she ruled.

"We wanted to vaccinate (by the end of the first quarter) 80% of the population aged over 80 and nursing staff (...) No Member State has reached this objective, for various reasons", noted a spokesperson for the European executive.

According to statistics from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), covering 23 countries, around 60% of people over 80 had received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine as of April 5, and only 29 , 7% had received both doses allowing them to be fully vaccinated.

Vaccinate 70% of the population

According to these figures, 59.8% of French people over 80 have received at least one dose of vaccine to date.

The Europeans, who suffered from significant delivery delays, received 107 million doses in the first quarter, well below initial projections, but expect a clear acceleration by the end of June.

"The number of doses expected in the second quarter is around 300 to 360 million: on this basis, we will have enough doses to reach our crucial goal of 70% of the adult population vaccinated," insisted the spokesperson.

"This will lead us to a situation where we will have sufficient collective immunity to fight the virus", he added, while specifying that these projections depended on the effective delivery of vaccines and the vaccination campaigns put in place by the States.

Collective immunity

According to a memo drawn up by the Commission last week, and of which AFP obtained a copy, EU member states would be able - on the basis of vaccine deliveries scheduled for the second quarter - to vaccinate between 44% ( Czech Republic) and 93% (Malta) of their total population by the end of June.

According to this document, the deliveries received until the end of June by France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands would enable them to vaccinate between 55% and 65% of their total population - this which would represent more or less the level of 70% of the adult population, and therefore the threshold of “collective immunity” set by Brussels.

France would be able to vaccinate 58.2% of its total population.

A disparity in the vaccination rate which is explained by differentiated deliveries: the distribution of doses pre-ordered by the EU from laboratories is initially made between the 27 in proportion to their population, but if a State decides to give up buy its share, other interested countries can buy them back.

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