Covid-19: As Delta spreads, 236,000 Europeans may die by December 1, warns WHO

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday warned that another 236,000 people could die from Covid-19 in Europe by December 1, sounding the alarm over rising infections due to the globally dominant Delta variant and stagnating vaccination rate on the Continent.

Countries across the region have seen infection rates tick up as the highly transmissible Delta variant takes hold, particularly among the unvaccinated, media reports said.

Meanwhile, South Africa has detected yet another potential Covid-19 ‘variant of interest’, known as C.1.2.

Europe’s relatively poorer nations, especially in the Balkans and the Caucasus, and also in Central Asia, have been hardest hit, and deaths are mounting as well.

“Last week, there was an 11 percent increase in the number of deaths in the region. One reliable projection is expecting 236,000 deaths in Europe, by December 1,” WHO Europe director Hans Kluge said Monday.

Europe has registered around 1.3 million Covid-19 deaths to date. Globally, more than 4.5 million have died, 21.7 million infected, and 19.4 million recovered.

Of the WHO Europe’s 53 member states, 33 have registered an incidence rate greater than 10 percent in the past two weeks, mostly in poorer countries, Kluge said.

High transmission rates across the Continent were “deeply worrying, particularly in the light of low vaccination uptake in priority populations in a number of countries.”

He said the Delta variant was partly to blame, along with an “exaggerated easing” of restrictions and measures and a surge in summer travel.

While around half of people in the WHO’s Europe region are fully vaccinated, uptake in the region has slowed.

“In the past six weeks, it has fallen by 14 percent, due to a shortage of vaccines in some countries and a lack of vaccine acceptance in others.”

Only six percent of people in lower and lower-middle-income countries in Europe are fully vaccinated, and some countries have only managed to vaccinate one in 10 health professionals.

“The stagnation in vaccine uptake in our region is of serious concern,” Kluge said, urging countries to “increase production, share doses, and improve access”.

He emphasized that since public health and social measures were being relaxed in many places, “the public’s vaccination acceptance is crucial”.

“Vaccine skepticism and science denial are holding us back from stabilizing this crisis. It serves no purpose, and is good for no one.”

The warning comes as the WHO and UNICEF urged European countries to make teachers a priority group for vaccinations so schools can stay open throughout the pandemic. As schools reopen after the summer holidays, it was “vital that classroom-based learning continue uninterrupted”, despite the spread of the Delta variant.