Europe became the epicenter of Covid-19 outbreak, which drives some governments to re-consider on imposing lockdown procedures before Christmas, and vaccines are controversial whether they are sufficient alone to fight the disease.
Reuters states: "Europe accounts for more than half infections in average of seven days worldwide and about half of the most recent deaths. It is the highest rate since April last year when the virus first swept through Italy.
These new concerns come amid a slowdown in successful vaccination campaigns ahead of winter and flu season.
About half the population of the European Economic Area (EEA); including European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, received two doses of vaccine according to EU data, but the pace has slowed in recent months.
The rate of receiving vaccines in southern European countries was about 80 percent. However, hesitation is blocking vaccination campaigns in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia, leading to an outbreak that could strain health care systems.
As Germany, France and the Netherlands witnessed an increase in infections, highlighting the challenges faced by the countries that have high acceptance rates for vaccination and undermine hopes for vaccine use as a means of returning to a near normal situation.
The latest report of the World Health Organization (WHO) the week ending November 7 pointed out that Europe, including Russia are the only regions with a 7% increase in infections while the rest recorded a decline or stabilization. Europe also recorded a 10% increase in deaths, compared to the rest of the regions with a decline.
Most EU countries started to vaccinate older and those with vulnerable immunity with booster vaccines. However, scientists said expanding it to include more people, as well as vaccinating adolescents, should be a priority to avoid steps like lockdown.
The European Medicines Agency is studying the use of the Pfizer/Biontech to vaccinate children between 5 and 11 years of age.
Contributed by Israa Farhan
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