Hans Kluge stressed on Thursday the need to urgently inoculate priority groups facing the highest risks.
“Continued high rates of transmission and emerging COVID-19 variants of concern, however, have raised the urgency of the task to vaccinate priority groups”, Kluge said at a briefing.
Pushing transmission down requires a sustained consistent effort, the WHO official warned.
“Bear in mind that just over three percent of people in the region have had a confirmed COVID-19 infection. Areas hit badly once can be hit again. Not a single community, nor individual have been spared from the consequences of the pandemic”, he said.
Kluge noted that more than 700,000 Europeans had died of a virus which had had a brutal impact on economies, mental health, education and private and professional lives and relationships.
He added he had a “very productive” discussion on Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus with the country’s ambassador in Copenhagen, where the WHO Europe office is located.
“There was an important meeting about a week ago between the Russian [Direct] Investment Fund and the WHO headquarters, the department of prequalification, to speed up this matter, and I myself had a very productive talk with the Russian ambassador in Copenhagen yesterday, confirming that the necessary additional information and trial data are on its way to Geneva”, Kluge said.