Europe, Central Asia likely to see 500K deaths by February due to covid

Ground Report | New Delhi: Central Asia, Europe Covid; The World Health Organization has feared that half a million people could die by February next year in Europe and Central Asia. The European Director of WHO has said that Europe and Central Asia have once again become the epicenter of Covid-19 and by February 1 million more people may die.

Regional Director Dr. Hans Kluge said that in the last month, there has been an increase of 55 percent in the cases of coronavirus coming to the region. The main reason for this is said to be the slow pace of vaccination and lack of preventive measures. Kluge said that due to this, Europe and Central Asia were responsible for 59 percent of Covid cases and 48 percent of deaths worldwide in the last four weeks.

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The havoc of the coronavirus is expected to intensify during the winter season. According to Kluge, large gathering of people in closed places in cold weather, less use of masks and Delta variants are also responsible for this increase.

Central Asia, Europe Covid

According to WHO experts, one billion vaccines have been administered in this region, but only about 47 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. Kluge said that there are eight countries in the region whose 70 percent of the population has taken the entire Covid vaccine, while in other countries this figure is below 10 percent. He said that if 95 percent of the people of Europe and Central Asia use masks, then they can save one lakh 88 thousand lives in the next four months.

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According to Dr. Catherine Smallwood of the WHO emergency team, the rate of infection in these areas is very high. He said, "The rate of infection is very high in the European region, not just in one country. Of course, Europe as a continent is very much connected and this could be the reason for the epidemic to spread again."

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According to experts, vaccination rates in Eastern Europe are worryingly low and many countries there are struggling to contain the virus. Dr. Smallwood said that a large number of pregnant women in these countries are suffering from Covid and are admitted in hospitals, who need to be made more aware of the Covid vaccine.

The number of new cases per day has been rising in Europe for six consecutive weeks and the number of new deaths per day has been rising for seven consecutive weeks, with nearly 250,000 cases and 3,600 deaths per day, according to official country figures. Compiled by AFP.

According to the data, in the last seven days, Russia has increased with 8,162 deaths, followed by Ukraine with 3,819 and Romania with 3,100 deaths.

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