* For a graphic on vaccine roll-out, see: https://tmsnrt.rs/3fzstuP
By John Miller and Ludwig Burger
ZURICH, April 1 (Reuters) - Europe, under fire for fumbling
its vaccine roll-out and fighting a fresh wave of infections, is
scrambling to speed up the pace of injections and avoid being
left further behind by Britain and the United States.
In Paris, the city's hallowed national soccer stadium is
being transformed into a mass vaccination hub, while Italy -
with 20,000 infections daily - has put the army and civil
defence agency in charge, after new Prime Minister Mario Draghi
fired the country's vaccine czar.
Over Easter, Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia state is
relaxing rules on who can get 450,000 doses of AstraZeneca's
vaccine. Clotting concerns have prompted the country to
limit the vaccine to people over the age of 60, but North
Rhine-Westphalia hopes its measures will now allow more people
in that age group to get a first dose.
Originally, it had wanted to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to
pregnant women and their partners, among other priority groups.
"We can't do that anymore, because I assume that those
people ... are under 60," North Rhine Westphalia's Health
Minister Karl-Josef Laumann told reporters.
"We didn't want to bunker these shots, we decided we would
get them via vaccination centres to people as quickly as
possible."
Europe's urgency to reverse what the World Health
Organization branded on Thursday an "unacceptably slow" start to
vaccinations is growing, as variants first detected in Britain,
South Africa and now Brazil whip up angst that acting too slowly
will let the virus proliferate again.
The chaos of Europe's roll-out has been exacerbated by
squabbling over vaccine exports, health concerns over
AstraZeneca's vaccine and some temporary delivery delays
affecting Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca
vaccines.
The European Union was slower than Britain and the United
States, not only to order vaccines last year from companies but
also in approving them. Even once they were approved,
vaccination rates have been disappointing.
The WHO estimates just 4% of 750 million people in 53
countries across continental Europe, from wealthier Scandinavia
to poorer Balkan countries, have been fully vaccinated, a
quarter of the U.S. count.
While the European Union's vaccination rate is slowly
climbing, only 13.4% of adults in the bloc have had at least one
shot, according to Europe's vaccine tracker.
By contrast, more than half of adult Britons and 38% of U.S.
adults have received at least one dose, official figures and
Reuters calculations show.
Still, the situation is improving: A Reuters analysis shows
the seven-day average for the four largest countries - Germany,
France, Italy and Spain - was at its highest yet during the last
week.
Since Spain resumed AstraZeneca shots on March 24 after
suspending them temporarily over clotting concerns, its
seven-day rolling average of vaccinations rose to nearly 200,000
shots a day, from 95,283 daily a week earlier, Spanish officials
said.
The country is now converting venues like conference centres
and, like France, football stadiums, into mass vaccination
centres, and expects to inoculate 70% of its 47 million
population by the end of summer.
Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias has said that April
will be "an inflection point", as more vaccines flood into the
country.
The EU expects a major ramp-up of deliveries in the second
quarter will be sufficient to inoculate at least 255 million
people, or 70% of its adult population, by July.
About 200 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine are due
in the quarter, enough for 100 million people, while deliveries
of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose shot will start this
month.
VETS, DENTISTS, COMPANIES
France is also converting veterinarian and dentists' offices
into vaccine centres, while Italy has abandoned primrose-shaped
pavilions in its squares and is getting doctors, dentists and
pharmacists to dispense doses instead. The aim is to more than
double daily vaccinations to half a million from 230,000
currently.
Pharmacies in Switzerland are also preparing to start
offering doses to people over 65 this month, but the government
expects that once mass vaccinations become possible, likely
sometime in May, private companies will have a role, similar to
flu clinics some offer each year to employees.
The Swiss government expects 10.5 million doses by July,
enough for roughly 5.2 million people.
"There won't just be shots in vaccination centres, doctors
and pharmacists," Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset said on
Wednesday. "That's something we're hoping for, something we're
supporting."
(Reporting by John Miller in Zurich, Ludwig Burger in
Frankfurt, Emilio Parodi in Milan, Francesco Guarascio in
Brussels, Matthias Blamont in Paris, Maria Sheahan in Berlin,
Nathan Allen in Madrid;
Editing by Josephine Mason and Susan Fenton)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
