With over 20 million cases, Eastern Europe is now the 'deadliest' region due to Covid-19
Among the top five countries in the world in terms of Covid-19 mortality rates at the moment, three are in Eastern Europe, including Russia, Ukraine and Romania.
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| Medical staff assist a Covid-19 patient in the intensive care unit (ICU) at a hospital in Bucharest, Romania. Photo: Reuters |
According to Reuters, the number of Covid-19 infections in Eastern Europe as of October 24 has exceeded 20 million. This is also the region facing the worst outbreak of the disease since the outbreak.
What Eastern Europe has in common is low vaccine coverage. Countries in the region are at the bottom of the European rankings for Covid-19 vaccination rates, with less than 50% of the population having received one dose. Hungary has the highest rate, but only 62% of its population has received at least two doses of the vaccine. Ukraine, meanwhile, has just 19%.
The number of new infections in Eastern Europe has increased sharply recently and is currently averaging 83,700 cases/day, the highest level since November 2020. Although accounting for only 4% of the global population, Eastern Europe currently accounts for 20% of new cases worldwide. According to statistics, of the five countries with the highest number of deaths from Covid-19 in the world today, three are concentrated in this region, including Russia, Ukraine and Romania.
More than 40% of new infections in Eastern Europe are from Russia. On average, Russia records 120 people positive for SARS-CoV-2 every 5 minutes. The health system in Russia is under great pressure. The number of deaths from COVID-19 in Russia has continuously set new records in the past 5 days. Currently, only 36% of Russians have completed vaccination.
In Romania, hospitals are also overwhelmed, with emergency beds always full. Morgues are running at full capacity as the number of Covid-19 deaths increases sharply. On average, a Romanian has died every five minutes this month from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In Ukraine, the COVID-19 epidemic situation is tense again with the number of new cases increasing sharply in recent days. On October 22, Ukraine recorded a new record number of deaths, with 614 cases. Currently, vaccine supply and vaccination coverage in Ukraine are much lower than in European countries. To date, only 6.8 million out of 41 million Ukrainians have been fully vaccinated.
