Covid Europe, Delta variant alarm: “High risk, vaccinate over 18”

The Delta variant today triggers a new contagion alarm in Europe for December and January, which risk becoming even more critical months for the continent already hit by the fourth wave. Measures are needed, including vaccination of all over 18. “Recent scenarios traced by ECDC forecasting models”, European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, “indicate that the potential disease burden from the Delta variant of Sars-CoV- 2 will be very high in December and January “in the EU and in the countries of the European Economic Area (EEA),” unless public health measures are urgently applied now in combination with continued efforts to increase vaccine diffusion. in the total population “is the warning launched by Andrea Ammon, director of the ECDC, illustrating the main data contained in the new ‘Rapid Risk Assessment’, the assessment of the risk associated with the Covid-19 situation in the area. Countries “should consider administering the booster dose of the Covid vaccine to all adults 18 and older, with priority for people over 40,” Ammon says. By illustrating the main contents of the new ‘Rapid Risk Assessment’, the assessment of the risk linked to the Covid situation in the area, Ammon highlights the need to act “against contagion due to decreased immunity”, using vaccine boosters “to increase the protection “. A move, notes the Ecdc director,” which could potentially reduce transmission in the population and prevent further hospitalizations and deaths. The booster dose – adds Ammon – is recommended no earlier than 6 months after completing the primary vaccination cycle ” Up to now, according to the data, 65.4% of the total population of the EU and the SEA (including Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, 76.5% if we consider only the adult population. The center stresses that the “overall pace” of vaccinations against Covid-19 in the EU and the SEE is “slowing down” and is “mainly driven by vaccinations in the young age groups”. And “4 countries” have less than 50% of the total population fully vaccinated against the disease caused by Sars-CoV-2.