On Aug. 8, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced results of a study that showed the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, from December 2020 through to March 2023, reduced deaths due to the pandemic by at least 59%, saving more than 1.6 million lives in the WHO European Region.

The study, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, revealed that today’s known COVID-19 death toll in the Region, currently at 2.2 million, might have been as high as 4 million without the vaccines. Most of those saved were aged 60 or older, the group at highest risk of severe illness and death from SARS-CoV-2.