Copenhagen: After the Omicron led surge nuisance in the United States and Britain, the variant now seems to dominate the Eastern counterparts. WHO Europe on Tuesday warned of a dramatic escalation of the COVID curve in eastern Europe after six countries, including Russia and Ukraine, have seen a multiplication in case counts over the last two weeks.
Addressing a press conference, Dr Hans Kluge Director for WHO Europe stated that the tally of the 53 countries spread across the Eastern Region counted more than 165 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 1.8 million pandemic attributed mortalities, including 25,000 in the last week alone. “Over the past two weeks, cases of COVID-19 have more than doubled in six countries in this part of the region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine), he added.”
Klugh pressed on the need of improvising vaccination programs, as Eastern Europe compared to the rest of the regions lagged the counts. According to him, less than 40% of people over age 60 in Bosnia, Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan have completed a full COVID-19 vaccine series. Stating the figures, he called on governments and health officials to closely examine the reasons for lower vaccine acceptance and instructed them to devise tailored strategies to increase vaccination rates urgently.