The following is an article written by Chantal Da Silva published on NBC News on November 14, 2021
As Europe finds itself at the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic once again, experts say it should serve as a warning to the U.S. and other countries about the virus’ unremitting nature.
Countries across the continent have seen cases soar. October saw a rise of more than 50 percent, and the worrying trend has continued this month as winter begins to bite.
Dr. Hans Kluge, the director of the World Health Organization’s Europe region, on Nov. 4 warned the region was “back at the epicenter of the pandemic,“ and his words proved prescient.
On Friday, the World Health Organization said nearly 2 million cases were reported across Europe in the week prior — the most the region has seen in a single week since the pandemic began. https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1459179155514396685?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1459179155514396685%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fiframe.nbcnews.com%2Fh9rgzbu%3F_showcaption%3Dtrueapp%3D1
In recent weeks, Germany reported record daily numbers of new infections with more than 50,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The Netherlands also reported more than 16,000 cases — the country’s highest number since the pandemic began, prompting the government to begin a partial lock down on Saturday which is set to last at least three weeks.
As cases surged towards the end of last month Belgium reimposed some Covid restrictions, including a requirement for masks in public places. The country’s Covid-19 pass also has to be shown to enter bars, restaurants and fitness clubs. The passport shows you are either fully vaccinated, have had a recent negative test or have recently recovered from the disease.
The country nonetheless recorded more than 15,000 daily cases on Monday.
Despite the surge, daily death rates in all three countries have remained relatively stable compared with past spikes, and experts have credited high vaccine uptake for weakening the link between the number of cases and hospitalizations and deaths.
“Luckily, the high vaccination coverage limits the death toll and hospitalizations there to a large extent,” Tom Wenseleers, an evolutionary biologist and bio-statistician at the KU Leuven university in Belgium, told NBC News in an email Wednesday.
Belgium, which reported hundreds of deaths at the start of the pandemic and then again last autumn when a second wave of cases forced a national lock down, has seen”hospital capacity tested” in recent weeks, Wenseleers said. But overall deaths appear to have largely been decoupled from high case rates, he added.
U.S. states both with high and low vaccination rates could look at Europe’s case numbers and take it as “a sign that the U.S. might still see resurgences as well,” he said.
On both sides of the Atlantic, “convincing as many people to get vaccinated should be the top priority,” along with “setting up booster campaigns” for those most at risk, he said.
Visit https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/covid-surging-europe-experts-say-s-warning-us-rcna4666 to see the original article.
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