The World Health Organization is "very concerned" about the spread of the coronavirus in Europe, said Hans Kluge, WHO regional director, in an interview with the BBC . He warned that the epidemic could claim half a million victims by March if no changes are made.

Europe has become the new epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic. The number of cases broke all previous records in many places. There are partly seasonal reasons for this, the colder winter weather, but the WHO regional director also highlighted the lower vaccination rate, as well as the fact that the delta variant is much more infectious compared to previous variants.

According to Hans Kluge, "a legal and social debate would be very timely" on making vaccinations mandatory, but this can only be considered as a last resort.

In the meantime, the protection card could still be used, which is not a means of restricting freedom, but a guarantee that we can keep our personal freedom.

According to the WHO regional director, even more people wearing masks could make a significant difference, but of course it would be good if more people asked for the vaccine and new measures and treatments were introduced in this situation.

Due to the spread of the coronavirus in Austria , the government has again ordered a complete shutdown from Monday,  and vaccination will be mandatory in the country from February 1, 2022. Large-scale demonstrations were held against the measure on Saturday  .

In Austria, about two-thirds of the population administered both doses of the vaccine, which is one of the lowest rates in Western Europe, and the seven-day case frequency is 991 per 100,000 people, which is one of the highest on the continent.

According to MTI's summary, more than 40,941 new infections were registered in the United Kingdom on Saturday as well, after 44,242 a day earlier. Death victims in the country are registered as Covid-19 victims 28 days after a positive test. This number was 150 on Saturday after 157 on Friday.

In Italy, 49 new deaths were reported by Saturday evening, one more than the day before. The daily number of new infections rose from 10,544 to 11,555. A total of 133,131 people died of Covid-19 in the country. Currently, 4,250 patients are being treated for coronavirus infection in hospitals, and 512 are in the intensive care unit. Almost 575,000 tests were carried out in Italy in the last 24 hours.

In Germany, the seven-day case frequency has risen to an all-time high. A month ago, this indicator was 80.4 per 100,000 people, and on Saturday it was 362.2. On Saturday, 63,924 new cases were diagnosed.

The seven-day frequency of cases in the Czech Republic was also higher than ever before, 929 per 100,000 people, which is the highest since the outbreak of the pandemic.

In Slovakia, the number of new cases surpassed all previous records: 9,171 new infections were recorded on Saturday. According to the data, 71 percent of the newly infected are unvaccinated. Three thousand patients need hospital care with Covid-19.

Source: hirado.hu / BBC/MTI

Photo: Tibor Rosta / MTI