葡萄牙里斯本——欧洲各国都在争先恐后地加快步伐冠状病毒接种疫苗的速度超过了传染性更强的三角洲变异体的传播速度，这是一场高风险的比赛，旨在防止医院病房再次挤满为生命而战的患者。

这种紧迫性与欧洲的暑假不谋而合，晴朗的天气带来了更多的社交聚会，政府不愿取缔它们。社交距离正在被忽视，尤其是在年轻人中，一些国家正在取消在户外戴口罩的要求。

人们拍照的激励措施包括免费食品杂货、旅行和娱乐代金券以及抽奖。塞浦路斯总统甚至呼吁爱国主义。

根据监测欧洲大陆30个国家的欧洲疾病控制中心的数据，部分或未接种疫苗的社区感染三角洲变异体的风险“高至非常高”。据估计，到8月底，这种变体将占欧盟27个国家病例的90%。

“以非常快的速度推进疫苗的推广是非常重要的，”ECDC警告说。

世界卫生组织也很关注。根据其在新冠肺炎的技术领先玛丽亚·范·克尔霍夫的说法，这种变体使变速器的增长呈“指数级”。

像美国这样的国家，每天新增病例数已经在急剧攀升联合王国、葡萄牙和俄罗斯。

在英国，德尔塔变异病例在不到一个月的时间里增加了四倍，周五确诊病例比前一周增加了46%。

葡萄牙语健康当局本周报告了三角洲变异体的“令人眩晕”的增长，5月份仅占病例的4%，但6月份几乎占到了56%。该国报告了自2月份以来最高的每日病例数，自4月初以来，医院中的新冠肺炎患者人数首次超过500人。

俄罗斯6月份新感染病例报告增加了一倍多，本周每天超过2万例，周六新死亡病例达到697例，连续第五天创下每日死亡人数纪录。

克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫在一次新闻发布会上说，“没有人想要任何封锁”，尽管他承认俄罗斯一些地区的病毒形势“紧张”

在一些国家，病毒在年轻人中传播得更快。在…里西班牙，全国每10万人14天病例通报率周五升至152。但对于20-29岁的年龄组，这一数字飙升至449。

这些数字引发了整个非洲大陆的恐慌。

荷兰政府正在将其疫苗接种计划扩大到12-17岁的人群，以帮助阻止令人担忧的新一轮激增。希腊在年轻人第一次刺拳后向他们提供150欧元(177美元)的信贷。罗马当局正在考虑使用面包车为海滩上的人们接种疫苗。波兰上周推出了一种只对完全接种疫苗的成年人开放的彩票，奖品中包括新车。

葡萄牙当局延长了疫苗接种中心的工作时间，创建了新的免预约诊所，召集武装部队帮助开展疫苗接种行动，并将服用两剂阿斯利康疫苗的间隔时间从12周缩短到8周。

内阁部长马里亚纳·维埃拉·达席尔瓦说:“我们正在和时间赛跑。”。

在整个欧洲抗击疫苗犹豫不决的斗争中，变异体的出现加剧了公众对注射效果的不确定性。本周在马德里，58岁的考古学家克劳迪娅·阿吉拉尔(Claudia Aguilar)在一个通宵延长工作时间的礼堂里接受了她第二次辉瑞-生物技术公司(Pfizer-BioNTech)的注射。

然而，她说她“不确定我是否真的对未来的变异免疫”。

“我的意思是，我有点怀疑这有什么好处，”阿吉拉尔说。

在俄罗斯政府要求一些部门的工人接种疫苗后，酒保叶夫根尼亚·车尔尼什科娃在红场附近的莫斯科口香糖百货商店排队等候注射。

“现在，它变得强制性，我们都明白为什么——因为第三波大流行已经在这里开始，”她说。

在世卫组织宣布新冠肺炎为大流行15个月后，一些政府似乎更愿意奖励公众耐心，而不是考虑恢复限制。

上周，约4万名球迷在伦敦温布利球场观看了英格兰对德国的欧洲杯足球赛。在葡萄牙，新的限制措施并不热心，比如限制周末晚上的餐馆营业时间。

然而，在莫斯科，餐馆、酒吧和咖啡馆从周一开始只接纳已经接种疫苗、在过去6个月内从新冠肺炎康复或在过去72小时内能够提供阴性检测的顾客。

周三，法国取消了最后一项主要限制，允许在餐馆、婚礼和大多数文化活动中无限制地聚集人群，尽管德尔塔变体的病例迅速增加。

里斯本卫生和热带医学研究所的副教授蒂亚戈·科雷亚发现了一种公众不耐烦的情绪，尤其是在渴望享受温暖夏夜的年轻人中。

“人们希望比接种疫苗更快恢复正常，”他说。

新出现的变异让人们看到了前所未有的免疫计划规模。ECDC表示，在其调查的国家中，61%的18岁以上的人都打过一针，40%的人完全接种过疫苗。

但世卫组织欧洲办公室主任汉斯·克鲁格博士本周警告称，到8月份，德尔塔变异将在其办公室覆盖的53个国家地区占据主导地位。他指出，该地区63%的人没有打过第一针。

“因此，(秋季)之前新一轮过度住院和死亡的三个条件已经到位:新的变异体、疫苗摄入不足、社会融合增加，”克鲁格说。

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全欧洲的美联社作家中，有马德里的阿里特斯·帕拉、莫斯科的达里娅·利特维诺娃和日内瓦的杰米·基顿。

Europe in vaccination race against COVID-19's delta variant

LISBON, Portugal -- Countries across Europe are scrambling to acceleratecoronavirusvaccinations and outpace the spread of the more infectious delta variant, in a high-stakes race to prevent hospital wards from filling up again with patients fighting for their lives.

The urgency coincides with Europe’s summer holidays, with fair weather bringing more social gatherings and governments reluctant to clamp down on them. Social distancing is being neglected, especially among the young, and some countries are scrapping the requirement to wear masks outdoors.

Incentives for people to get shots include free groceries, travel and entertainment vouchers, and prize drawings. The president of Cyprus even appealed to a sense of patriotism.

The risk of infection from the delta variant is “high to very high” for partially or unvaccinated communities, according to the European Centre for Disease Control, which monitors 30 countries on the continent. It estimates that by the end of August, the variant will account for 90% of cases in the European Union's 27 nations.

“It is very important to progress with the vaccine rollout at a very high pace,” the ECDC warned.

The World Health Organization is also concerned. The variant makes transmission growth “exponential,” according to Maria Van Kerkhove, its technical lead on COVID-19.

Daily new case numbers are already climbing sharply in countries like theUnited Kingdom, Portugal and Russia.

In the U.K., cases of the delta variant have increased fourfold in less than a month, with confirmed cases Friday up 46% on the previous week.

Portuguesehealthauthorities this week reported a “vertiginous” rise in the delta variant, which accounted for only 4% of cases in May but almost 56% in June. The country is reporting its highest number of daily cases since February, and the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals has surpassed 500 for the first time since early April.

Reports of new infections in Russia more than doubled in June, topping 20,000 per day this week, and new deaths hit 697 on Saturday, the fifth day in a row that the daily death toll set a record.

Still, “no one wants any lockdowns,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov at a briefing, although he admitted that the virus situation in a number of Russian regions is “tense.”

In some countries, the virus is spreading much faster among younger people. InSpain, the national 14-day case notification rate per 100,000 people rose to 152 on Friday. But for the 20-29 age group, it shot up to 449.

Those numbers have triggered alarm across the continent.

The Dutch government is extending its vaccination program to those aged 12-17 to help head off a feared new surge. Greece is offering young adults 150 euros ($177) in credit after their first jab. Rome authorities are mulling the use of vans to vaccinate people at the beach. And Poland last week launched a lottery open only to adults who are fully vaccinated, with new cars among the prizes.

Portuguese authorities have extended the hours of vaccination centers, created new walk-in clinics, called up the armed forces to help run vaccination operations, and reduced the period between taking the two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from 12 weeks to eight weeks.

“We’re in a race against the clock,” Cabinet Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva said.

In the fight against vaccine hesitancy across Europe, the appearance of variants has fed public uncertainty about how effective the shots are. In Madrid this week, Claudia Aguilar, a 58-year-old archaeologist, got her second Pfizer-BioNTech jab at an auditorium that is expanding its working hours overnight.

Nevertheless, she said she is “not sure I’ll really be immune” against future variants.

“I mean, I’m a bit skeptical that this is going to do any good,” Aguilar said.

Bartender Yevgeniya Chernyshkova lined up for a shot at Moscow's GUM department store just off Red Square after the Russian government required vaccinations for workers in some sectors.

“Now, it’s becoming mandatory and we all understand why — because the third wave of the pandemic has started here,” she said.

Fifteen months after WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, some governments appear more open to rewarding public patience than thinking about bringing back restrictions.

Some 40,000 fans went to England’s European Championship soccer match against Germany at London’s Wembley Stadium last week. In Portugal, new restrictions have been half-hearted, such as limiting restaurant opening hours on weekend nights.

In Moscow, however, restaurants, bars and cafes on Monday began admitting only customers who have been vaccinated, recovered from COVID-19 in the past six months or can provide a negative test in the previous 72 hours.

France lifted the last of its major restrictions Wednesday, allowing unlimited crowds in restaurants, at weddings and most cultural events despite fast-rising cases of the delta variant.

Tiago Correia, an associate professor at Lisbon’s Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, detects a mood of public impatience, especially among young people keen to enjoy warm summer nights.

“People want to return to normal more quickly than the vaccination rollout is happening,” he said.

The emerging variants have shone a light on the unprecedented scale of the immunization programs. The ECDC says in the countries it surveys, 61% of people over 18 have had one shot and 40% are completely vaccinated.

But Dr. Hans Kluge, the head of the WHO’s Europe office, cautioned this week that the delta variant is poised to become dominant by August in the 53-country region his office covers. And he notes that 63% of people in that region haven’t had a first jab.

“The three conditions for a new wave of excess hospitalizations and deaths before the (fall) are therefore in place: New variants, deficit in vaccine uptake, increased social mixing,” Kluge said.

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Among Associated Press writers across Europe who contributed are Aritz Parra in Madrid, Daria Litvinova in Moscow and Jamey Keaten in Geneva.