Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization's (WHO) regional director for Europe, called on Thursday for an end to "complacency" as the latest COVID-19 statistics revealed that "Europe is back at the epicenter of the pandemic -- where we were one year ago," APA reports.
"We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence," he said during an online press conference.
In a tweet, Kluge said that "the current pace of transmission across the 53 countries of the WHO European Region is of grave concern (as) COVID-19 cases are once again approaching record levels."
During the past four weeks, the WHO's European Region has experienced a startling 55-plus percent increase in new COVID-19 cases, and it now accounts for 59 percent of all cases globally and 48 percent of all reported deaths.
Last week, the WHO reported that the European Region registered 1.8 million new cases and 24,000 new deaths.
"Cumulatively, there are now more reported cases in the European Region than in Southeast Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Western Pacific and Africa combined," Kluge said.
This unprecedented increase is due to two reasons: insufficient vaccination coverage and the relaxation of public health and social measures, he said.
"On average, only 47 percent of people in the European Region have completed a full vaccination series. While eight countries have now exceeded 70 percent coverage, in two the rate remains below ten percent," Kluge said.
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