European countries on alert as WHO warns of new COVID-19 wave
By Lokmat English Desk | Published: November 5, 2021 09:06 AM2021-11-05T09:06:36+5:302021-11-05T09:08:05+5:30
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53 countries in Europe and Central Asia face the “real threat” of a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic in the coming weeks or are already battling a new wave of infections, exacerbated by the more transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
“We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence. Europe is back at the epicentre of the pandemic, where we were one year ago,” WHO's Europe head Hans Kluge told reporters from the WHO Europe headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Kluge said case counts are beginning to near-record levels again and the pace of transmission in the region, which stretches as far east as the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, is of “grave concern.”
European countries must work harder to prevent the coronavirus from spreading further as deaths and new cases surge, Kluge added.
He said the difference now is that health authorities know more about the virus and have better tools to combat it
Relaxed prevention measures and low vaccination rates in some areas explain the latest surge, he said.
WHO Europe has said that the region saw nearly 1.8 million new weekly Covid-19 cases, an increase of about 6 per cent from the previous week, and 24,000 deaths in the same period or a 12 per cent rise. Kluge said hospitalisation rates due to Covid-19 in the 53-country region more than doubled over the last week. If the trajectory continues, Kluge said, the region could see another 500,000 pandemic deaths by February, he said.
