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The World Health Organization criticised Europe's "unacceptably slow" vaccine rollout and said the region's surge in coronavirus infections was "worrying".

"Vaccines present our best way out of this pandemic... However, the rollout of these vaccines is unacceptably slow" and is "prolonging the pandemic", WHO director for Europe Hans Kluge said in a statement.

"We must speed up the process by ramping up manufacturing, reducing barriers to administering vaccines, and using every single vial we have in stock, now," he added.