COPENHAGEN, Denmark | The World Health Organization was alarmed Thursday at the “very worrying” rate of transmission of COVID-19 currently in Europe, which could lead to half a million additional deaths on the continent by February.
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“We are, again, at the epicenter,” lamented WHO Europe director Hans Kluge during an online press conference.
“The current rate of transmission in the 53 countries of the European region is of great concern (…) if we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million deaths from COVID-19 in the region of here February, ”he said.
For the WHO, the increase in cases is explained by the combination of insufficient vaccination coverage and the relaxation of anti-Covid measures.
According to its data from WHO Europe, hospitalizations linked to Covid “have more than doubled in one week”.
The number of new cases per day has been on the rise for almost six consecutive weeks in Europe and the number of new deaths per day has been on the rise for just over seven consecutive weeks, with around 250,000 cases and 3,600 daily deaths, according to official data by country compiled by AFP.
The current increase is notably driven by Russia (8,162 deaths in the last seven days), Ukraine (3,819 deaths) and Romania (3,100 deaths), according to these data.
The organization called for continued massive use of masks in the face of the pandemic.
“Reliable projections show that if we achieve a 95% use rate of masks in Europe and Central Asia, we could save up to 188,000 lives out of the half a million lives we stand to lose.” by February 2022, ”noted Mr. Kluge.