(Stockholm) Despite anti-restriction movements, Europe must “urgently” take action against the new wave of COVID-19, an EU agency said on Wednesday, the day after a WHO warning on the risk of another massacre this winter.
With more than 2.5 million cases and nearly 30,000 deaths recorded in the past week, the Old Continent is by far the region of the world most affected by the pandemic, according to official data collected by AFP. And the trend remains on the rise, especially in countries with the lowest vaccination rates.
On Tuesday, WHO Europe was alarmed by the “grip” of COVID-19 in Europe, which could cause 700,000 additional deaths on the continent by the spring, in addition to the 1.5 million deaths already enumerated.
The highly contagious Delta variant has reduced the effectiveness of vaccines against the transmission of the disease to 40%, said the head of the WHO.
“Vaccines save lives, but they do not completely prevent the transmission of COVID-19,” explained Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Data suggests that before the arrival of the Delta variant vaccines reduced transmission by about 60%, with Delta this dropped to 40%,” he said.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the EU’s health agency responsible for epidemics, called for filling the gaps in vaccination, but also for taking “non-pharmaceutical measures”, a generic term denoting anti-COVID-19 restrictions.
Despite the protections of vaccination, several European countries have already had to return to significant restrictions, after several months of relaxation.
The general level of vaccination in the EU, still below 70% of the total population, “leaves a wide vaccination gap which cannot be filled quickly and gives a large space for the virus to spread”, underlines the agency.
Vaccine gaps
In the European Union, 67.7% of the population has received two doses of the vaccine, but the differences are huge between countries. According to figures from Tuesday, only 24.2% of Bulgarians are vaccinated against 86.7% of Portuguese.
“We urgently need to focus on bridging this immunity gap, offering ‘booster’ doses to all adults and reintroducing non-pharmaceutical measures,” said ECDC Director Andrea Ammon.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has echoed ECDC’s recommendation of a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine for all over 18s, with priority over 40s.
Sweden announced Wednesday morning to offer a third dose to all adults.
France is preparing to announce new measures on Thursday, including “the acceleration” of vaccination, the “strengthening of the health pass” and “the strengthening of barrier measures” such as the wearing of masks.
In Italy, the government decided that unvaccinated people could no longer have access to restaurants, bars, cinemas, theaters, nightclubs and sports halls.
In addition, all Italians over 40 can now receive the booster dose five months after the second dose, not six months as planned.
In Slovakia, new restrictions were also enacted, with the closure of restaurants and non-essential shops from Thursday.
According to the WHO, the increase in Europe is explained by the combination of the prevalence of the Delta variant, insufficient vaccination coverage and the relaxation of anti-COVID-19 measures.
If the increase in cases concerns almost the entire continent, the countries of Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Russia have the heaviest results, due in particular to lower vaccine coverage.
In Russia, prominent doctors on Wednesday invited celebrities and politicians opposed to vaccines to visit hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, in order to see the effects of the disease with their own eyes.
Germany, among the most affected countries in the EU, decided on Wednesday to extend its aid to companies until April 2022.
Against a background of general weariness of the populations, the fight against the pandemic must face the awakening of anti-restriction movements which have manifested themselves in recent days in Austria or the Netherlands, sometimes violently.
In the French West Indies, new violence in Martinique on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday left nine wounded among the police, on the sidelines of a strike and protest against the vaccine obligation and the suspensions of caregivers, but also on the cost of living.