This fourth "massive" wave on the European continent particularly hits Germany, which on Thursday broke its previous record of daily contaminations dating from December 2020, with 33,949 new cases in 24 hours.

"We are, again, at the epicenter," lamented WHO Europe director Hans Kluge during an online press conference.

"The current rate of transmission in the 53 countries of the European region is very worrying (...). If we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million deaths from Covid-19 in the region of here in February, "he warned.

"I think this is a wake-up call" for the rest of the world because "many other regions do not necessarily" have the same means as Europe to cope with such a surge of the pandemic, in terms finance, immunization access or health systems, noted Michael Ryan, WHO's emergency manager.

According to data from WHO Europe, the number of hospitalizations linked to the coronavirus has more than doubled in one week.

Save nearly 200,000 lives

The threshold of five million deaths caused by the pandemic since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease at the end of December 2019 was crossed on Monday evening.

A mask abandoned on the ground in front of the Reichstag on October 19, 2021 in Berlin INA FASSBENDER AFP / Archives

Europe alone recorded more than 1.4 million.

The number of new cases per day has been on the rise for nearly six consecutive weeks and the number of additional deaths in 24 hours has been on the rise for just over seven weeks, with around 250,000 cases and 3,600 daily deaths, according to official data. by country compiled by AFP.

The current outbreak is notably driven by Russia (8,162 dead over the past seven days, + 8% compared to the previous week), Ukraine (3,819 dead, + 1%) and Romania (3,100 dead, + 4%) .

"Most people hospitalized and dying of Covid-19 today are not fully vaccinated," Kluge said.

On average, according to the WHO, only 47% of people in the region, which includes European countries and several in Central Asia, have received two doses of the vaccine.

To fight the pandemic, the organization called for continued vaccination, massive use of masks and social distancing measures.

"Reliable projections show that if we achieve a 95% use rate of masks in Europe and Central Asia, we could save up to 188,000 lives out of the half a million we stand to lose by February 2022, "Kluge noted.

Messages on the ground in different languages ​​calling for wearing a mask, October 14, 2021 in Berlin Christof STACHE AFP / Archives

Vaccinate American employees

In Germany, 19,702 daily cases have been recorded on average over the last seven days, a figure that had not been reached since the end of April.

"The situation is serious," commented on ZDF public television channel Helge Braun, Chancellor Angela Merkel's right-hand man.

The resumption of the epidemic is taking place in Germany in a complicated political context, with a government reduced since the last parliamentary elections to deal with current affairs, pending the outcome of ongoing negotiations for the formation of a new coalition between Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals.

German Minister of Health Jens Spahn at a press conference on the situation of the coronavirus epidemic in the country on November 3, 2021 in Berlin Markus Schreiber POOL / AFP

The Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, called on all the regional states, competent for health matters, to toughen the rules for the unvaccinated by preventing them from entering certain public places or by requiring an expensive PCR test .

The situation is also worrying in Croatia, where the vaccination rate against Covid-19 is one of the lowest in the European Union and which on Thursday recorded a record number of contaminations in one day.

The authorities there "begged" the population to be vaccinated.

In Austria, the city of Vienna will prohibit the access of non-vaccinated or antibody-free people to restaurants and hairdressing salons.

At the same time, in the United States, the government announced Thursday that tens of millions of employees should be vaccinated against Covid-19 by January 4, under penalty of having to undergo very regular tests.

Further south, in Colombia, a certificate of vaccination against Covid-19 will be required from November 16 for entry into bars, restaurants and sporting or cultural events.

Considerable hope for relieving hospital services, the United Kingdom on Thursday became the first country to authorize molnupiravir, a treatment from the American laboratory Merck considered a crucial tool in the fight against the pandemic.

© 2021 AFP