EUROPE (Washington Insider Magazine) – While Covid-19 cases continue to decline in the United States, the Omicron variant continues to give the countries of Europe lots of problems — especially in locations where the vaccine has a low uptake.
To understand the full impact and grip of COVID in Europe, we must contrast its progress with that of the rest of the world’s largest countries. For example, in the United States, Covid-19 pediatric cases dropped from 1,150,000 the week of January 20th, to almost 300,000 last week. This is still extremely high and well above the peak of the Delta surge for children. The statistics are continuing to be updated by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The 7-day average which was at 178,688 is now down to an average of 154,912 according to the New York Times tracker. The 7-day average for deaths has also sharply declined but is still holding firm above the peak of deaths during the Delta variant.
As officials of both city and state assess their COVID measures as cases continue to decline, the state of California’s health officials announced yesterday that they will not be dropping the mask mandate in schools until at least the end of the month. This isn’t true among other states in the U.S.
Muriel Bowser, Mayor of Washington, DC, stated yesterday that as of March 1 masks will no longer be required in grocery stores, pharmacies, bars, gyms, and even restaurants. This is in stark contrast to the most recent New York City announcement yesterday, as the state and local governments announced that they will be firing more than 1,430 workers that did not comply with the vaccine requirement for city employees.
The vaccine mandate began in late December and required that any city employee that is face to face with anyone must be vaccinated. They were given 45 days to provide proof of a vaccination to face employment termination.
Now, to consider Europe’s progress and success against the most recent waves of COVID-19 and its variants. Unfortunately, the European countries are not considered to be out of the dark yet. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) European regional office said that the eastern European countries and city-states are now currently in the thick of the Omicron variant, with no amendment to the rising case numbers.
Hans Henri Kluge, M.D., stated that cases have more than doubled over the last 2 weeks in countries like Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. These are countries in which vaccines are extremely limited. Despite this information, only 40% of adults over the age of 60 have caused concerns to be raised about the low vaccination levels in some eastern European countries.
In some, the coverage for healthcare workers is under 40%, which puts Europe’s most vulnerable populations at an even higher risk as they seek care. While the Delta variant is still widely circulating in Eastern Europe, Dr. Kluge has warned that now is not the time to drop COVID-19 measures.
In Indonesia, the reported new positive cases have risen to 57,049. While in Sweden they have approved a plan to offer a fourth Covid19 vaccine to people 80 and older. Globally the total cases rose to 414,703,641 and 5,832,961 have died.
We look forward to a pandemic-resistant future as we continue to ride the waves of COVID throughout Europe.
