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WHO sounds alarm over looming Covid-19 catastrophe in Europe
4 Nov, 2021 11:44
Europe is back at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic and could see another half a million Covid-19 deaths by February, the World Health Organization’s top official in the region, has said.
“The current pace of transmission across the 53 countries of the European region is of grave concern,” Hans Kluge, head of its regional office for Europe, told a press conference on Thursday.
Hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients have more than doubled in the space of just a week, according to WHO data, he said.
With cases nearing record levels due to the more contagious Delta variant, Europe is back at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, where it was a year ago, Kluge admitted. “The difference is we know more and we can do more,” he said.
However, despite the experience the medics garnered tackling the virus, reliable forecasts suggest the continent could see “another half a million Covid-19 deaths” by February 1, the official warned.
In its weekly report on Wednesday, the UN health agency said coronavirus cases have been on the rise in Europe for five weeks in a row.
The continent has had the worst coronavirus infection rate in the world, with around 192 new cases per 100,000 people, followed by the Americas, which have had 72 new cases per 100,000.
The sharp rise in numbers of those sick has been mainly driven by the UK, Russia, Turkey and Romania, the report said.
First reported death of a teenager after Covid-19 vaccination
registered in South Korea, authorities investigate incident
30 Oct, 2021 18:05
A teenager with no underlying health conditions died in South Korea after having received a Covid-19 Pfizer shot, authorities have reported, saying it’s the first such case of a vaccinated minor dying.
A probe into the teenager’s death has been launched, the country’s major news agency Yonhap reported on Saturday, citing health authorities. The unnamed child was a high schooler who was vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in mid-August.
Specifying that the young vaccine recipient had no underlying health conditions, authorities said the teenager died in late September. The death marks the first reported fatal case among vaccinated teenagers, officials added.
Earlier this year, health officials in the US were investigating the death of a 13-year-old from Michigan who died three days after receiving the second shot of an unnamed coronavirus vaccine. The case then prompted a group of medics from a far-off country, Singapore, to pen an open letter to their state officials, calling for the inoculation of youths to be ceased until the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) clarified why a teenage jab recipient died.
In South Korea, high school seniors and those aiming to attend national college entrance exams have been receiving Covid-19 vaccines since July. Recently, minors aged between 12 and 17, as well as pregnant women were included in the regional inoculation program, in a bid to increase vaccination coverage in the country. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) then announced that some 2.7 million adolescents would be able to come forward and get vaccinated using the mRNA-based Pfizer-BioNTech shot.
Covid vaccinations ‘not sufficient’ in preventing Delta variant spread,
almost equal to unvaccinated – UK study
30 Oct, 2021 17:00
A new study has found that though Covid-19 vaccinations lower the chance of hospitalization and death in the case of infections, those inoculated can spread the Delta variant as easily as those not.
Researchers looked at over 600 people in the UK over the course of a year for the study, done by Imperial College London and the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) and published this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
“Although vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe disease and deaths from COVID-19, our findings suggest that vaccination is not sufficient to prevent transmission of the Delta variant in household settings with prolonged exposures,” the study declares.
In their analysis of “densely sampled household contacts exposed to the Delta variant,” researchers found 38% of those unvaccinated got Covid, while 25% of those vaccinated got it.
Vaccinations are more effective at stopping the spread of other variants, such as Alpha, reducing spread by approximately 40 to 50%, according to the study.
The study also claims that the viral load, the amount of a virus in one’s body, is similar among the vaccinated and unvaccinated, though the virus dissipates quicker in vaccinated individuals, according to the findings.
“Fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections have peak viral load similar to unvaccinated cases and can efficiently transmit infection in household settings, including to fully vaccinated contacts. Host–virus interactions early in infection may shape the entire viral trajectory,” the paper reads.
Health officials have continuously warned the public the Delta variant is the most deadly and transmittable coronavirus variant and even vaccinated individuals can spread it.
Researchers behind the Lancet study claimed ‘booster’ programs and approved vaccinations for younger individuals will help curb the spread of the virus going into the winter months, “but analysis suggests that direct protection of individuals at risk of severe outcomes, via vaccination and non-pharmacological interventions, will remain central to containing the burden of disease caused by the Delta variant.”
Ajit Lalvani, co-lead of the study and professor of infectious diseases at Imperial College London, claims vaccinations alone are not enough to protect from the Delta variant, and this new data shows it, though he also encouraged unvaccinated individuals to get inoculated.
“Our findings show that vaccination alone is not enough to prevent people from being infected with the Delta variant and spreading it in household settings,” Lavlani said.
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