WHO fears half a million more deaths in Europe until February from the virus

The World Health Organization (WHO) fears that the coronavirus pandemic could cause half a million more deaths in Europe until the beginning of February, at a time when the continent is registering increases in infections, compared to the global trend.

The general director of the WHO for Europe, Hans Kluge, warned of the risk that this continent will add 500,000 additional deaths from COVID-19 until the beginning of February 2022 and justified it in that 43 countries of the WHO European region “will face high or extreme stress”Of hospital capacity during this period.

At the same time, from Geneva, WHO headquarters, an epidemiological report was released according to which Europe has distanced itself from the global downward trend of the pandemic in the last week, registering an increase of 7% in cases confirmed COVID-19 compared to the previous week, while deaths on the continent increased 10%.

The rise in infections in the world was limited to 1%, while deaths fell by 4%, which in figures represented 3.1 million new reported cases and 48,000 additional deaths in the last seven days.

Africa It was the only other region where there was an increase in cases (3%), although there the deaths fell sharply (-27%).

Since the pandemic began, total confirmed cases around the world are close to 250 million and deaths have exceeded five million.

According Kluge, the European region is once again in the “epicenter“Of the pandemic, since the number of accumulated cases”is fast approaching 80 million in all 53 countries”, And the number of deaths is almost 1.5 million.

Record figures in Russia and Germany

Russia today registered a record of daily deaths for the second consecutive day by COVID-19 with 1,239 deaths, according to data from the operational center to fight the coronavirus, which also reported 34,656 new infections last day.

Since the start of the pandemic, 250,454 people have died in Russia from the coronavirus, although official statistics on excess deaths in the same period almost double this figure.

The Russian Minister of Health, Mijaíl Murashko, acknowledged before Parliament this Wednesday that in 12 of the 85 regions of the country there are oxygen reserves only for two days.

Germany This Wednesday, it again posted new highs in incidence and daily infections since the beginning of the pandemic, with an insufficient vaccination rate to cope with the fourth wave.

German health authorities verified 39,676 new infections, the third record in less than a week. The cumulative incidence in seven days marks its third consecutive record and stands at 232.1 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants.

For its part, Austria has recorded a total of 11,398 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, a figure that beats the previous absolute record since the start of the pandemic, of 9,943 cases, registered last Saturday.

The number of active infections in the country of 8.9 million inhabitants has risen to 85,611 cases, 6,372 more than yesterday, while the cumulative incidence in seven days stands at 714 infections per 100,000 inhabitants.

In the Czech Republic, the number of daily COVID-19 infections has soared 57% with a total of 14,539 new infections in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health reported.

Also Norway, one of the countries least affected in Europe by the pandemic, recorded a record of new cases this Wednesday. During the last 24 hours, 2,126 new cases have been reported, 500 more than a week ago and above the record of 1,973 on November 1, according to the latest figures from the Institute of Public Health.

Vaccines for children

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) began on Wednesday to evaluate the possible extension of the European license of Moderna’s vaccine to children between 6 and 11 years old. So far it is authorized only for people over 12 years old.

The EMA Human Medicines Committee will review data on Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine to determine whether it supports its safety and efficacy against COVID-19 in that age group, including the results of an ongoing clinical study.

The agency expects to conclude its evaluation of these data in “about two months”And will decide whether to recommend the extension of the use of this vaccine to children between 6 and 11 years of age, depending on whether the available data is sufficient or more information or additional analysis will be needed.

The Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna mRNA vaccines are the only two COVID-19 preparations currently used in adolescents over 12 years of age in the European Union.