Much of Europe continues to grapple with infections, with Germany on Thursday reporting its highest number of daily new cases since the pandemic began.
And in a dire new warning, WHO regional director Hans Kluge said the speed of transmission across the region is of “grave concern”.
“We are once again at the epicenter of the earthquake,” Cluj said in a statement.
“According to a reliable estimate, if we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million COVID-19 deaths in Europe and Central Asia by the first of February next year,” 43 of the 53 countries said. His patch could also see high or extreme stress on hospital beds.
Large parts of the continent are battling back surges from the delta variant, which has complicated the easing of restrictions in many countries. Eastern Europe is particularly badly affected; Cases in Russia and now Germany are at record levels, while Ukraine’s capital Kiev imposed tough new restrictions on Monday.
Many experts have expressed concern that a further increase in infections, coupled with the seasonal cold, could put health care workers under unbearable pressure in the Christmas and New Years.
In its latest weekly update, the WHO said Europe reported a 6% increase in cases last week. This was the highest of any global sector, with every other region recording a “falling or stabilizing trend”.
“We are at another critical point in the resurgence of the pandemic,” Kluge said. He attributed the new wave to two factors; The easing of COVID-19 measures, and the lack of vaccination coverage in the Balkans and on the east side of the continent.
“Countries with low immunizations have significantly higher hospitalization rates and are rising faster than countries with high immunizations,” he said.
Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn warned on Wednesday that tough measures needed to be taken against those who refused to vaccinate. Spahn told reporters at a news conference on Thursday that during the G20 in Rome, he was asked for a vaccination certificate more often in a day in four weeks than in Germany.
He was responding to the dramatic increase in infections in the country; 33,949 new cases were registered on Thursday, breaking the previous record in December 2020. Hospitalizations and deaths are much lower than that pre-vaccine peak.
Spahn said Germany was facing a “massive” pandemic without vaccination, adding: “The truth is that India will have very few Covid-19 patients. [intensive care] If everyone who could do it was vaccinated. “
The world on Monday crossed a milestone of 5 million Covid-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic – a mark that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called “a painful new frontier”.
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