WUHAN: Visitors go on one of the water rides at an amusement park in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province yesterday.-AFP

COPENHAGEN: The World Health Organization yesterday warned of a "false sense of security" in Europe, saying most of the continent's nations were still vulnerable despite a fall in COVID cases. WHO Europe director Hans Kluge told a press conference that "the decline in cases conceals increasing numbers of outbreaks and community spread involving variants of concern."

More than a million cases are registered every week across the 53 member states in the UN agency's European region, which includes several in central Asia. A total of 100,000 people have died in the Middle East after contracting COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in December 2019, according to an AFP tally yesterday based on official data. In all, 4,991,770 people in the region have tested positive for the new coronavirus.

In terms of deaths, the Middle East is the fifth most affected region in the world, behind Europe (789,310 deaths from 35,032,194 cases), Latin America and the Caribbean (628,398, 19,819,222), the United States/Canada (492,313, 28,095,746) and Asia (245,899, 15,548,576). Over the last seven days, the number of new daily cases detected in the Middle East has risen slightly to an average of 25,114 per day, an increase of three percent compared to the previous week.

But the trend is clearly downwards in terms of deaths, with an average of 238 recorded per day, down 19 percent over the week. Iran is the country in the region that has suffered most from the pandemic. It has 58,686 deaths from 1,488,981 recorded cases of COVID-19, ranking it 11th in the world in terms of fatalities. Iraq follows far behind, with 13,140 deaths from 634,539 cases, then Saudi Arabia (6,415, 371,356) and Israel (5,233, 706,416).

In total, since the WHO office in China reported the outbreak of the disease at the end of December 2019, the pandemic has led to 2,353,534 deaths worldwide from 107,220,146 infections, as of yesterday. But the number of reported cases has been falling over the past four weeks and deaths have also been declining over the past two weeks. "At this point, the overwhelming majority of European countries remain vulnerable," Kluge said, adding that as of now there is "a thin line between the hope of a vaccine and a false sense of security."

The number of vaccine doses administered in Europe now stands 41 million, greater that the nearly 36 million cases recorded since the start of the pandemic. According to data from 29 out of the 37 countries that have begun vaccinations, 7.8 million have received both doses of the vaccines, Kluge said, warning that the number only accounts for 1.5 percent of the population in those countries.

"Vaccines are essential, but as of now, they are not sufficient to control the pandemic," Kluge said. The regional WHO director cautioned against "rash decisions" for countries contemplating easing restrictions. "Time and again have we seen countries reopen too fast and lose hard-earned gains," Kluge said. With the emergence of new variants, vaccinations could also be undermined if the virus is allowed to circulate, potentially causing mutations that "may influence vaccine efficacy."

"Unless we halt transmission now, the expected benefits from vaccinations in controlling this pandemic may not be evident," Kluge said. The WHO director also reiterated a call for an equitable distribution of vaccines to include poorer countries, both citing it as a "moral imperative," but also as a means to mitigate risks.

German warning

German leaders warned yesterday that they could not rule out shutting Germany's borders with its neighbors because of troublingly high coronavirus infections fuelled by more contagious variants in countries like Austria and the Czech Republic. "We believe it would be sensible to declare both (Austria and Czech Republic) as mutation areas. This will likely happen," said Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder.

He had warned late Wednesday that if the Czech Republic was unable to take appropriate measures to curb contagion, then a "border closure must also be an issue". Germany in late January banned most travellers from countries classed as so-called mutation areas or places hardest hit by new, more contagious coronavirus variants. Only a handful of exceptions are allowed to enter Germany from these countries, including returning Germans and essential workers. - AFP