Nearly 27,000 deaths were reported on the continent last week, more than half of all COVID-19 deaths worldwide, UN News reports.
WHO Director – General Tedros Ghebreyesus, speaking to reporters in Geneva, explained that the virus is spreading not only in countries with lower vaccination rates in Eastern Europe, but also in countries with the highest vaccination rates in Western Europe.
“It’s another reminder, as we’ve said over and over again, that vaccines don’t replace the need for other precautions,” Tedros said. “Vaccines reduce the risk of hospitalization, serious illness and death, but they do not completely prevent infection.”
The UN News report noted that the WHO continues to recommend the use of proportionate testing, masks, physical distance, improved ventilation, and other measures.
“With the right combination of measures, it is possible for countries to find a balance between curbing proliferation and the transparency of their societies and economies,” Tedros assured. “No country can simply vaccinate a way out of a pandemic.”
“It makes no sense” to give booster vaccines to healthy adults or to vaccinate children while health workers, the elderly and other at-risk groups around the world are still waiting for their first dose, the WHO director said.
Every day, six times more effects are given worldwide than base doses in low-income countries, what Tedros described as a “scandal that must end now.”
Tedros also provided an update on COVAX, a UN-led global initiative to achieve equitable access to vaccines.
Source: ANI
Source: The Nordic Page