Lessons from Europe

India must speed up vaccination

The pandemic is far from over. A Reuters analysis of the latest data indicates that, in 55 of 240 countries, infection case numbers are rising instead of falling. Some countries, particularly in Eastern Europe, are at record levels of infections and there is genuine concern that many of them will have to lock down again to some extent — particularly countries like Russia, where there has been considerable vaccine hesitancy, which has prevented a sufficient proportion of the local population from being vaccinated. Some countries that have already endured major previous waves and were hopeful that the spread of vaccines