BERLIN, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The head of the European
Commission rejected suggestions that Europe was in a race to
vaccinate its population against the coronavirus faster than
other countries, saying that it was important to cooperate at
this stage of the pandemic.
The European Union's civil service is under fire over the
slow pace of vaccination in the bloc, with critics pointing to
faster progress being made in Britain, Israel and the United
States as evidence of a planning failure in Brussels.
"I think the only race we are in is with the virus and
against time," Ursula von der Leyen told German television on
Sunday evening, adding that she had agreed with British Prime
Minister Boris Johnson that factories in both regions would
deliver doses to each region.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Daniel Wallis)