The Covid-19 situations in the Balkans, Baltic states and Central Europe are among the worst in the world, the WHO said
More people are dying of Covid-19 now in Europe than during March 2020, the World Health Organisation has warned.
The WHO's emergencies lead in Europe, Dr Catherine Smallwood, said she was "particularly worried" about the situation in the Balkans, the Baltic States and Central Europe, where hospitalisations and deaths are among the highest in the world.
The numbers of new cases per million people are also rising so fast that in some countries - notably Estonia, Bosnia, Hungary and Poland - the graphs tracking the virus point almost vertically upwards.
Experts said that the combination of the spread of the
more transmissible UK variant coupled with slow government reactions, as well as a lack of vaccinations in some countries, could all be contributing to the spiking numbers and Europe's looming third wave. The WHO said that the situation was "most acute" in
areas that had been successful "in controlling the disease in the first six months of 2020."
"We are particularly worried about the epidemiological situation in the Balkans, as well as many other countries around Central Europe," Dr Smallwood told a news conference.
The rise in cases is even more concerning because some of the above countries already have the highest numbers of deaths per million in the world: Montenegro (28.7), Hungary (22.9), the Czech Republic (20.2) and Bulgaria (19.6), according to
figures from the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and Our World in Data. Considering that deaths usually lag behind case numbers by several weeks, the immediate future looks potentially very challenging.
"The number of people dying from Covid-19 in Europe is higher now than it was this time last year, reflecting the widespread hold this virus has," said Dr Hans Kluge, WHO's European director, noting that 20,000 people died in the last week alone. The situation in
western European countries like France and Germany also remains serious.
By comparison, the UK currently has a Covid-19 death rate of 2.8 people per million. However,
in January its numbers were much closer to those seen in the countries above, as the full impact of the B117 variant took hold while the effects of the successful vaccination campaign, as well as a strict lockdown, had not yet been factored in.
The badly-hit Czech Republic, too, has seen cases start to fall after putting in place another strict lockdown.
Other countries are in much more difficult places. Bosnia, and particularly Sarajevo, is facing a particularly perilous situation, with fast-rising cases and deaths alongside a lack of jabs and, until recently, fairly lax restrictions.
Twice as many people are dying daily now compared to in the first peak, a year ago, when 335 died on the worst day,
Health officials there are warning of a total collapse of the system, according to a report in
Al Jazeera.
"The death toll in Sarajevo in March has never - except maybe during the [1992-1195] war - been higher," a local website recently claimed.
Almost no vaccines have reached Bosnia either, following a dispute with the WHO's Covax scheme over the country's readiness to deploy the Pfizer jab, which requires ultra-cold storage.
However, the WHO cautioned that vaccines alone could not be relied upon to stop the coronavirus spread across the region. Even countries like Hungary and Serbia which have moved quickly, often with Russian and Chinese vaccines, are still seeing major spikes because not enough of their populations are protected yet.
"Case incidence continues its increasing trend, and is moving eastwards," Dr Kluge said.
"We have now seen three consecutive weeks of growth in COVID-19 cases," he added, saying over 1.2 million new cases had been reported last week across the European region.
Dr Kluge said it was "too early" to assume that vaccine coverage in the region would improve the "epidemiological situation".
In the meantime, the WHO team urged countries to stick to the public health measures that still work, even against the virulent B117 variant. They also backed the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine,
which a number of European countries have paused the use of while a handful of blood clots post-jab are investigated.
"Vaccines work, and will eventually allow a return to a new normal," Dr Kluge said.
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