Pandemic Epicentre

"[With high levels of COVID immunity and a strong booster vaccination program, the UK is] unlikely [to experience a] catastrophic winter wave [of infections that would require a Christmas lockdown similar to last year]."

"[The UK is seeing a] hint of an uptick in the last few days [following weeks of declining case numbers and hospital admissions]. We've had very high case numbers - between 30,000 and 50,000 a day - really for the last four months, since the beginning of July.That has obviously had some downsides."

"It has also paradoxically had an upside of boosting the immunity of the population compared with countries like Germany, the Netherlands and France, which have had much lower case numbers and are only now seeing an uptick."

Professor Neil Ferguson, Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, U.K.

The UK government is urging the public to get their booster shots   SkyNews

"Europe is back at the epicentre of the pandemic, where we were one year ago."

"[Countries in the region are at] varying stages of vaccination rollout [and region-wide an average of 47 percent of people are fully vaccinated."

"Only eight countries have fully vaccinated 70 percent of their population."

Dr.Hans Kluge, director, WHO 53-country Europe region

"We are clearly in another wave."

"The increased spread is entirely concentrated in Europe."

Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist, Sweden

"The epidemiological situation in Europe is very concerning now as we head into the winter with increases in infection rates [and] hospitalization." 

"And we can also see the increase in fatalities."

Fergus Sweeney, head of clinical studies/manufacturing task force, European Medicines Agency

People waiting for a mass COVID-19 testing in Vienna, Austria   Sky News

Even as the WHO's director general declared Europe to now represent the global pandemic's epicentre, Austria took steps to place millions of its unvaccinated citizens under strict lockdown. Those over age 11 not double-vaccinated only permitted to leave their homes to attend school, work, for exercise or to secure essential supplies. Two million of the country's 8.9 million population were affected by the order. It is, in fact, similar in nature to Beijing's severe orders in response to COVID outbreaks.

A greater than 50 percent leap in coronavirus cases in the past month in Europe has made it the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic; this irrespective of a more than ample supply of available vaccines. "There may be plenty of vaccine available, but uptake of vaccine has not been equal", observed WHO emergencies chief, Dr.Michael Ryan.

The Dutch government has also announced new social restrictions for the Netherlands  Sky News

 

European authorities were urged to "close the gap" in the tempo and coverage of inoculation. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, stated that those countries that immunized over 40 percent of their population should now take a halt in proceedings and donate doses to developing countries not yet able to offer their citizens a first dose of vaccine.

"No more boosters should be administered except to immunocompromised people", he said, calling for vaccine producers to prioritize the supplying of COVAX, a distribution agency developed by the UN to share vaccine doses on a global scale. Just one percent of Pfizer's supply of vaccines has ended up with COVAX, with Moderna providing a million doses to the developing world from late October. 

Although developing countries have to the present received fewer than one percent of the globe's     COVID-19 production of vaccines, in Africa and Southeast Asia cases fell by nine percent last week. In the meantime, over 60 countries began giving booster doses to combat weakening immunity before the onset of winter, which is when the latest wave of COVID-19 is anticipated.

Children ages five to 11 began receiving COVID-19 doses in the United States once authorities there made the decision of the benefits outweighing potential risks. Dr.Hans Kluge from Copenhagen's offices as director of the Europe region, warned that coronavirus hospitalization rates had more than doubled in one week alone, predicting that the trajectory would lead the region to see another half-million pandemic deaths by February.

The WHO Europe region stretches east as far as the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, tallying close to 1.8 million new cases weekly, representing an increase of some six percent from the week before, and 24,000 weekly deaths caused by COVID; a 12 percent gain.

 

A specialist wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) sprays disinfectant while sanitizing a chapel inside the building of the Leningradsky railway station amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Moscow, Russia October 19, 2021. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

 Case increases of COVID-19 have risen across the continent, identifying it as the only region in the world where COVID-19 continues increasing. In Central and Eastern Europe there are several countries in particular seeing daily case numbers shoot skyward. The Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency experts have urged people to get themselves vaccinated.