Europe Fears the Surge in Covid Cases again at an alarming rate leaving the authorities with a difficult decision to make of imposing lockdowns or not when Christmas is just around the corner. This rise in Covid cases is because of the cold weather and more people staying indoors, increasing the risk of spreading the virus.
Europe is having serious debates over vaccinations, whether it should be made mandatory or not or if it is really effective or not. Romania has been facing extreme cases of covid resulted adversities too. In a single day, the death rate was recorded to be around thirty-two.
Europe has been reporting infections that account for half of the total world infections. That means that from the total infection rate that has been reported, half of the infections and deaths are only from Europe alone. The other half account for all the other countries of the world.
The businesses, companies, and especially the governments have been badly affected by the prolonged COvid, and if it keeps on stretching, then this will result in a serious issue for most of the countries.
Mark Rutte, who is the dutch prime minister in Western Europe, stated that the virus has been spreading rapidly and is now almost everywhere in Europe, so serious measures need to be taken.
Boris Johns, who is the prime minister of the United Kingdom, had already predicted Europe’s situation comparing it with a storm cloud. This has proved to be true.
The pace of vaccination has slowed down in these months as everyone expected Covid to go away on its own. Around the sixty-five percentage point population in European Economic Area (EEA) has been vaccinated with the two doses. This includes the European Union, Liechtenstein, Iceland, and Norway.
Southern European countries have been doing better with an eighty percentage point of the population vaccinated, but in eastern and central Europe and Russia majority of the population is scared and hesitating in getting themselves and especially their children vaccinated.
Even the governments which are financially stable and have acceptance rates like the governments of France, Germany, Netherlands are also facing difficulties with controlling the increase in covid cases.
For now, we can not draw any conclusions whether or not the social distancing, vaccines, and boosters have proved to be effective or not as there are a lot of factors involved in the lowering of hospitalization cases and deaths than last year.
Lawrence Young, who is a virologist, mentioned that the most important lesson to learn from this whole pandemic is that one should not take things lightly and should not lower down its guards because you never know what might happen next. Just like now, Everyone was expecting a drop in Covid 19 cases, but we again see a surge.
It was reported for the whole week till the 7th of November by the World Health Organization that the cases are declining in other parts of the world except for Europe, including Russia. The cases are surging there rapidly, with a ten percentage point increase in death rate.
Germany has announced the reopening of Covid 19 free tests with the mandatory wearing of face masks in crowded public places and keeping social distances till next year. On Sunday, Austria will be deciding for itself whether to impose a lockdown and set a curfew for the unvaccinated population of the country.
BOOSTER SHOTS
According to the scientist, the first and the foremost step to stop the infection from spreading is to make everyone get vaccinated. After that other things should be done. Most EU countries are now encouraging booster shots of vaccines for the unhealthy or older people who are weak and most susceptible to getting severe symptoms from Covid.
Carlo Federico, who is the immunology and microbiology diagnostic at the Gesu Hospital, said that the foremost and the most important step to take now is to promote vaccination throughout Europe.
The scientists are also analyzing and considering the options of vaccinating the five to eleven age groups of children with either Pfizer or BioNTech.
Norway has decided to offer a third dose to people who are old and weak. They are still considering the options of giving third doses to age groups of eighteen and older. Italy has also decided to offer the third dost to its citizens who are over the age of forty.
Michael, who works at the University of Southampton, stated that this pandemic would give everyone, especially the EU state about the importance of booster doses. Now, after seeing the effects, they will realize on their own that they should get the dose as soon as possible.
Latvia is a country in the EU that has till now the least number of vaccinations recorded. In the middle of October, the lockdown was imposed for some weeks, and also the parliament decided through proper voting that lawmakers should be banned and their voting right on legislation should be taken away from them if they go against vaccination or refuse to get it.
Virologists have mentioned again and again that vaccination is the most important part in preventing the spread of infection, but it alone is not enough to fight off the pandemic completely. Proper following of covid 19 instructions along with vaccination is required; for example, wearing masks in public, avoiding indoor gatherings, avoiding poor hygiene, and convincing your loved ones to get vaccinated and take precautions will together help fight off this coronavirus pandemic.
Antonella, who works at the University of Padua in Italy as an immunology professor, stated that social distancing, wearing masks, and the requirement of proof of vaccination for allowing indoor events are required to defeat pandemics.
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