Von der Leyen in the EP: Priority is to press ahead with vaccination

25 Nov 2021 11:27 AM

Speaking at the European Parliament's Plenary session on 23 November, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said the top priority was ‘to continue pressing ahead with vaccination', as many EU countries were facing a new wave of infections.

“We are now in a better place, thanks to the vaccines, to break this wave than ever before,” she said. “Vaccinated people are much less likely to become severely ill from COVID-19, to have to to be admitted to hospital, or to die from it”.

She also quoted recent data from Member States that show that the higher the rate of vaccination was, the lower the risk of death was. “In countries such as Portugal and Spain for example, where 80% to 90% of adults are vaccinated, the risk of dying from COVID-19 in the first two weeks of November was 30 times lower than in the countries with the lowest vaccination rate.”

She reminded that there were also enough vaccines in Europe for everyone who needed a booster dose. “Let us continue to follow the science! Booster jabs help us to keep immunity against the virus high. The vaccinations are, without doubt, our best protection against the pandemic,” she stressed. In that context, she also underlined how important it was to continuously educate and inform citizens about the benefits of vaccination.