We have all seen how Europe has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a warning sign for the U.S. Almost all of the countries on the continent experienced a surge in cases. In October, we’ve seen a rise of more than 50%, and with winter just around the corner, we’re afraid it might all get worse.
Back on Friday, the World Health Organization shared terrifying data: about 2 million cases were reported across Europe one week before. This is the highest number Europe has seen since the beginning of the pandemic. Germany, for example, recorded a daily number that’s higher than 50,000. The Netherlands also has more than 16,000 cases – also the biggest number recorded since the beginning of the pandemic. The government there has begun a partial lockdown, which will last for three weeks.
"Almost 2 million cases of #COVID19 were reported in Europe last week, the most in a single week in that region since the pandemic started.
Almost 27,000 deaths were reported from Europe, more than half of all COVID-19 deaths globally last week"-@DrTedros
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) November 12, 2021
Belgium has also reimposed some restrictions, ad the COVID-19 pass has to be shown before entering bars, restaurants, or gyms. The country recorded more than 15,000 daily cases.
Tom Wenseleers, from the KU Leuven university in Belgium, stated: “Luckily, the high vaccination coverage limits the death toll and hospitalizations there to a large extent. The problem, however, is with the Eastern Europe countries. Romania with 591 deaths, Bulgaria with 334 deaths, and Latvia with 64 deaths over the last three weeks. People don’t want to get vaccinated, and that is probably why this is happening, according to Wenseleers. He said that the problem wasn’t the fact that these countries didn’t get the vaccine. All 27 members of the European Union were able to buy all the vaccines they needed. “Despite having access to vaccines, those countries did not manage to convince their population to get vaccinated,” he stated.
