WHO warns of COVID surge in Eastern Europe, urges amplified efforts on all fronts

The health authorities are concerned over the growing rates of COVID-19 infection in Eastern Europe, where six countries—including Russia and Ukraine—have reported a steep surge in coronavirus cases over the last two weeks, said the head of the World Health Organization’s Europe office on Tuesday. The 53-country region, which stretches from former Soviet republics into central Asia, has so far seen over 165 million COVID-19 cases followed by 1.8 million deaths due to the deadly coronavirus, including over 25,000 in the last week alone, said WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge.

At a media briefing, Kluge said in Russian that "today, our focus is towards the east of the WHO European region pointing to a surge in the highly transmissible omicron variant." He said, "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 further stated that "As anticipated, the omicron wave is moving east: 10 of the eastern Member States have now detected this variant." However, scientists have claimed that the third wave of the pandemic fueled by the omicron variant is milder than previous variants, and the hospitalisation rate across the country is comparatively lower than in previous waves. 

WHO warns of COVID surge in eastern Europe, including Russia, Ukraine

The WHO Regional Director for Europe stressed the need to increase vaccination rates, which are lower in Eastern Europe compared to the rest of the region. He stated that less than 40% of people over 60 in Bosnia, Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan have completed the full COVID-19 vaccination.

Kluge asked governments and health officials "to closely examine the local reasons influencing lower vaccine demand and acceptance and devise tailored interventions to increase vaccination rates urgently based on the context-specific evidence." He also said it was "not the moment to lift measures that we know work in reducing the spread of COVID-19."

Notably, the WHO Europe chief also highlighted the increased immunity of people due to the COVID vaccine and also shared a "message of hope" pointing towards a high recovery rate and the looming end of the winter season that causes many people to gather indoors, where the virus can spread more easily.

(With Inputs from AP)

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