Covid-19: WHO warns of “very worrying” rate of transmission in Europe

Published on : 04/11/2021 – 13:01Modified : 11/04/2021 – 13:03

“We are, again, at the epicenter,” lamented the director of WHO Europe. The World Health Organization underlined, Thursday, November 4, the “very worrying” rate of transmission of Covid-19 currently observed in Europe. An increase in cases that the organization explains by the combination of insufficient vaccination coverage and the relaxation of anti-Covid measures. A situation that could lead to half a million additional deaths on the continent by February.

“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 by February, “said Hans Kluge at an online press conference.

According to data from WHO Europe, hospitalizations linked to Covid-19 “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.

Record infections in Germany and Russia

This fourth “massive” wave particularly hits Germany, which on Thursday broke its record for daily infections dating from December 2020, with 33,949 new contaminations in 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch health watch institute.

This fourth “massive” wave mainly affects the unvaccinated, according to Angela Merkel’s government. The previous record was reached on December 18, 2020, with 33,777 new infections.

In total, more than 4.6 million people have been infected since the start of the epidemic with the new coronavirus in Germany.

Russia has recorded a new record of contaminations and deaths linked to Covid-19 (8,162 deaths in the last seven days), a sign of the violence of the epidemic wave that is hitting this country, forcing the capital Moscow to close its non-essential services.

Ukraine (3,819 deaths) and Romania (3,100 deaths) are not spared.

France, which is also recording an increase in Covid-19 cases, will restore the wearing of masks in a large part of its primary schools from Monday.

The mask could save up to 188,000 lives

To stem contagions, the World Health Organization has called for continued massive use of masks in the face of the pandemic.

According to the director of WHO Europe, “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 million. lives we risk losing by February 2022 “.

With AFP