Oil prices fell on Friday for a sixth day in a row, down nearly 9 for the week, as a new wave of COVID19 infections in particular across Europe spurred fresh lockdowns and dampened hopes for an imminent recovery in fuel demand.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate WTI crude fell 4 cents, or 0.07, to 59.96 a barrel by 0552 GMT.

Brent crude was down 10 cents, or 0.16, to 63.18 a barrel.

Oil had edged up in Asias morning trading after a 7 drop on Thursday as physical buyers leapt at the chance to load up on cheap oil, said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA, in a Friday note.

But the market remains increasingly worried about fuel demand outlook amid rising coronavirus cases, fresh restrictions and slowing vaccination rollouts in some countries, analysts said.

Goldman Sachs said headwinds related to European Union demand and Iran supply would slow the oil market rebalancing by 0.75 million barrels per day bpd in the second quarter, although it expects OPEC will act to offset that.

Safety concerns about the side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine had led several European countries to stop administering the shot.

Although Germany, France and other countries have announced the resumption of inoculations after regulators declared the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, the programme halt has made it harder to overcome resistance to vaccines among some of the population.

Britain will have to slow its COVID19 vaccine rollout next month due to a supply delay.

Several French…