As fears of new variant looms, Europe surpasses 75 million Covid cases

As fear of a new variant has taken over the region, a Reuters tally state that Europe has surpassed 75 million coronavirus cases. The European Union's public health agency has warned that within a few months, the new Covid variant could be responsible for more than half of all the cases. 

Before Omicron was even discovered, Europe had become the epicentre of the pandemic, for the second time. 

As of now, the UK has reported the highest total number of coronavirus cases in the region followed by Russia, France and Germany.

The WHO had warned that 700,000 more people could die from coronavirus by March 2022, taking the total to above 2.2 million. WHO had said that it is expected that there will be high or extreme stress on hospital beds in 25 countries, and high or extreme stress in intensive care units in 49 out of 53 countries until March 1, 2022.

Eastern Europe comprised 33 per cent of the total reported cases and nearly 53 per cent of the total reported deaths. This accounts for around 39 per cent of the population in the region.

As per data by Reuters, the pandemic started speeding up in the second half of 2021.

Also read | WHO warns as Europe could hit over 2 million COVID-19 deaths by March 2022

In order to battle with the growing cases, the ECDC has recommended vaccine boosters for all adults, prioritising those over 40. 

"Available evidence emerging from Israel and the UK shows a significant increase in protection against infection and severe disease following a booster dose in all age groups in the short term," the ECDC said.

Many countries in Europe have already started rolling out the booster shots. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday tweeted that "boosters should be available for adults, with priority for people over 40 and vulnerable people."

Latvia, which is one of the least vaccinated countries in the EU, bodies at were seen piled up on top of each other, unclaimed for days. In the Czech Republic, where only 62 per cent of the population has received just one dose of the vaccine, hospitals are burdened with patients infected by the deadly virus.

(With inputs from agencies)