The number of cases of Covid-19 disease globally exceeded 250 million on Monday, as Eastern European countries, some of them with a low vaccination rate, such as Russia, are in the middle of the fourth wave. and reports record numbers of infections and deaths, Reuters reports, quoted by Digi24.ro.
The average number of cases has dropped by 36% in the last three months, according to a Reuters analysis, but the virus still infects 50 million people every 90 days due to the much more infectious Delta variant. By comparison, it took only a year for the world to cross the first threshold of 50 million cases globally.
The number of infections is rising in 55 of 240 countries – Russia, Ukraine and Greece are still setting record highs since the beginning of the pandemic. Eastern Europe is also the least vaccinated region in Europe. According to the analysis, one million new infections are reported every four days, and more than half of the new infections are in Europe.
Health experts are optimistic that many countries have already overcome the worst of the pandemic as a result of vaccinations and natural exposure, but warn that cold weather and the coming winter holidays could lead to an increase in the number of cases. .
“We believe that between this period and the end of 2022 we will be able to gain control over this virus – we will be able to significantly reduce the number of serious cases and deaths,” says Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist at WHO.
