Senior officials at the World Health Organisation fear there could be 236,000 more Covid deaths in Europe between now and 1 December on account of stagnating vaccination rates and low uptake in poorer countries, APA reports citing The Guardian.
“Last week, there was an 11% 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 told reporters.
Europe has registered around 1.3 million Covid deaths to date.
Of the WHO Europe’s 53 member states, 33 (62%) have registered an incidence rate greater than 10 percent in the past two weeks, Kluge said.
Kluge attributed the higher transmission to the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant, an “exaggerated easing” of restrictions and measures, and a surge in summer travel.
While around half of people in Europe are fully vaccinated, vaccination uptake in the region has slowed, Kluge noted.
“In the past six weeks, it has fallen by 14 percent, influenced by a lack of access to vaccines in some countries and a lack of vaccine acceptance in others...The stagnation in vaccine uptake in our region is of serious concern,” Kluge said.
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