Merkel admits to making mistakes in the second wave of the Corona epidemic

"Health Organization": Europe's situation is still "fragile" in the face of "Covid-19"

Medics transport a patient with "Corona" in an ambulance to San Martino Hospital in Genoa, Italy.

EPA

The World Health Organization announced in Europe yesterday that despite the trend of "Covid-19" infections towards a decline, the situation of the largest part of European countries is still "fragile" in the face of the epidemic, warning of a "false sense of safety" due to the number of those who received the vaccine, Which is still a little, and for her part, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, admitted to making mistakes in the second wave of the Corona epidemic.

In detail, the Director of the World Health Organization in Europe, Hans Kluge, said during a press conference that "the situation of the overwhelming majority of European countries is still fragile."

The United Nations official stressed that, "If we do not stop the transmission of infection now, the expected benefits of vaccines in combating this epidemic may not be clear." He added, "At the present time, there is a fine line between hope in the vaccine and a false sense of safety."

In all the 53 countries in the WHO European region (including many Central Asian countries), the number of reported weekly cases still exceeds one million.

Symbolically, the number of vaccine doses given in the region, reaching 41 million, exceeded the number of cases registered since the start of the epidemic, reaching 36 million.

But the organization's data shows that 1.5% of the population has been vaccinated in 29 European countries.

In the European Union, 2.9% of the population received at least one dose, according to the Agence France-Presse census, yesterday, and 5.83 million people received at least the second dose, or 1.3% of the population.

The World Health Organization has reiterated the need for equitable access to the vaccine, regardless of the wealth of the country.

Klug warned that "unfair access to vaccines can backfire. The longer the virus remains, the greater the risk of dangerous mutations."

Across the region, 38 countries have recorded cases associated with mutated versions of the virus that appeared in Britain, and 19 with those that appeared in South Africa, according to the latest data.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted miscalculations and mistakes in the second wave of the Corona epidemic.

During her delivery of the government's statement in Parliament, Merkel said yesterday that the first wave of the epidemic, last spring, affected Germany less than other countries, "but after that we were not careful enough, and we were not fast enough."

She considered that dealing with the pandemic, at the end of summer and early fall, was extremely hesitant, noting that Germany did not re-shut down public life in time and with sufficient firmness.

In the government's statement, Merkel explained the measures it had agreed upon in its consultations, the day before yesterday, with heads of state governments on how to confront the epidemic in the coming period.

The meeting decided to extend the closure of "Corona" until the seventh of next March, and Merkel said: "Most of the measures that have been approved must be maintained continuously," and Merkel described what was approved as "appropriate, necessary and proportionate."

The German Chancellor expressed her hope for a marked increase in the frequency of vaccination against Corona in her country.

Merkel said that she understood that the start of the vaccination campaign had frustrated many people, given the tremendous hopes that were placed on them, but indicated that the vaccination momentum is increasing.

She expressed her belief that vaccines represent a "turning point in the pandemic", which was reached thanks to the work of scientists at record speed, and stressed that it is clear that vaccinations will not be able in the following months to provide "collective protection" but rather individual protection in principle.

The German Chancellor defended the decision not to set a fixed timetable for the opening procedures in the Corona crisis.

She said: “We entered a war with the virus, so to speak, and it is our opponent, and the virus’s trends are not based on data but according to the number of infections, and according to questions about the extent of the infection.

She explained that, at the outset, it is necessary to examine the quality of the tracking of contact chains, the extent of the impact of the application of the warning from "Corona", the reinforcements in health offices, and what the testing strategies led to and the improvement of protection measures.

Merkel warned that further mitigation measures should not lead to a new wave in which the virus wins the upper hand, and in which the number of infections will rise exponentially.

The German Chancellor believed that it was necessary to exercise utmost caution due to the spread of Corona virus mutations.

The latest data available on the American Johns Hopkins University website showed that the total number of Corona virus infections around the world reached 107 million 339 thousand cases yesterday.

The data also showed that the number of people recovered exceeded 60 million, while the total deaths exceeded two million and 354 thousand cases.

The United States leads the world in the number of injuries and deaths.

One death and 15,038 new cases of corona in Russia

Yesterday, the Russian health authorities announced that 553 deaths and 15,038 new cases of Corona virus were recorded in the country, during the past 24 hours.

The website "RT Al Arabiya" channel quoted the operations center for combating the spread of the "Corona" virus, that the total number of deaths increased to 78,687 cases.

The total confirmed cases of "Corona" in the country increased to four million and 27,748 injuries.

Yesterday, 21,961 of the injured recovered, bringing the total of those recovering to three million and 538,422 cases.

Moscow - D.P.A.

553 Palestine: 1,101 new cases of "Corona", and two deaths

Yesterday, the Palestinian Minister of Health, Mai Al-Keela, announced that 1,101 new cases of the Coronavirus and two deaths were recorded among Palestinians during the past 24 hours. The minister said that the Gaza Strip recorded 202 cases of all new infections, and the Palestinian government imposes a partial closure from the hour From seven in the evening until six in the morning every day, from Sunday to Thursday, and a complete closure on Friday and Saturday to confront the spread of the Corona virus, and the Ministry of Health database reports that the total number of HIV infections reached 187,446, of whom 174642 recovered and 2102.

Ramallah - Reuters

Corona injuries around the world exceed 107.3 million, and two million and 354 thousand deaths.

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