BRUSSELS – European Union leaders are gathering Thursday to try to inject new energy into the bloc’s lagging coronavirus vaccination efforts as concern mounts that new variants might spread faster than authorities can adapt.
The leaders will meet via videoconference from 1400 GMT (9 a.m. EST). They’ll debate ways to ease production bottlenecks and speed up the rollout of vaccines, as well as the severity of restrictions that should remain in place to halt the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 515,000 people across the bloc's 27 nations. “The epidemiological situation remains serious, and the new variants pose additional challenges.