EU projecting majority of residents to be immunised against COVID by end June – reports

A majority of EU member states will have enough COVID-19 vaccine supplies to immunise the majority of residents by end June, much earlier than the EU’s official target, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg.

According to the memo, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands will be able to fully inoculate over 55 per cent of their populations by end June.

The EU is seeking to immunise 70 per cent of adults by the end of summer, which corresponds to around 55-60 per cent of the total population when factoring in demographics for each member state.

These latest projections by the European Commission will be met with relief following the 27-member bloc’s rocky vaccination roll-out, characterized by supply issues, delays, mixed messages and political in-fighting.

According to reports, the European Commission is expecting vaccine deliveries to increase to around 360 million doses in the second quarter of this year (April- June), as opposed to the just over 100 million doses secured in the first quarter of the year.

The internal memo, dated 1st April, outlines exact figures of doses available to each member state by the end of June. It reportedly shows that the prospects are overall positive, however, some are set to lag behind, including Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Australia.

Malta, together with Denmark, is projected to reach the immunity threshold much earlier.

Reports say that the European Commission’s estimates factor in an agreement made last week to redistribute part of an accelerated batch of deliveries to countries where supplies are scarce.