WHO Europe chief voices 'grave concern' about COVID rebound
Geneva, Nov 4: A 53-country region in Europe and Central Asia faces the real threat of a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic in the coming weeks or already is experiencing a new wave of infections, the head of the World Health Organisation's regional office said Thursday.
Dr. Hans Kluge said case counts are beginning to near record levels again and the pace of transmission in the region, which stretches as far east as the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, is of grave concern.
We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence, Kluge told reporters from WHO Europe headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Europe is back at the epicentre of the pandemic, where we were one year ago.
He said the difference now is that health authorities know more about the virus and have better tools to combat it.
Relaxed prevention measures and low vaccination rates in some areas explain the latest surge, he said.
Kluge said hospitalisation rates due to COVID-19 in the 53-country region more than doubled over the last week.
If that trajectory continues, the region could see another 500,000 pandemic deaths by February, he said.
WHO Europe says the region tallied nearly 1.8 million new weekly cases, an increase of about 6% from the previous week, and 24,000 COVID-19 weekly deaths, a 12% gain.
Kluge said the countries in the region were at varying stages of vaccination rollout and that region-wide an average of 47% of people were fully vaccinated.
Only eight countries had 70% of their populations fully vaccinated.
We must change our tactics, from reacting to surges of COVID-19, to preventing them from happening in the first place, Kluge said.
WHO's headquarters in Geneva on Wednesday reported that cases had risen in Europe for the fifth consecutive week, making it the only world region where COVID-19 is still increasing.
The infection rate was by far the highest in Europe, which reported some 192 new cases per 100,000 people.
Several countries in Central and Eastern Europe have seen daily case numbers shoot up in recent weeks.
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Congress protests at Utkal Bhavan over killing of Bengali migrant worker in Odisha
Kolkata (PTI): The Congress on Tuesday staged a protest in front of Utkal Bhavan here against the killing of a migrant worker from Murshidabad district in Odisha, alleging a growing pattern of violence against Bengali-speaking workers across several states.
The demonstration was led by Congress leader Manoj Chakraborty, who said the latest incident in Odisha, where a young man from Murshidabad was allegedly beaten to death, reflected an alarming trend of harassment and attacks on Bengali migrant workers.
Chakraborty claimed that workers from West Bengal were being targeted and "tortured" in states such as Odisha, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, often merely for speaking the Bengali language.
"The workers are forced to leave their homes because there is no livelihood, no jobs, in their areas. When they go outside the state to earn a living, they are attacked for their identity," Chakraborty told reporters during the protest.
Demanding immediate government intervention, the Congress leader said the safety of migrant workers must be ensured through institutional measures. He urged the government to issue official identity cards to all migrant workers at the earliest.
"These identity cards should clearly mention the worker's home district, the local police station and the contact number of a police officer so that they can seek immediate help while working outside the state," he said.
The Congress leader said that such incidents would continue unless concrete steps were taken to protect migrant workers.
A 30-year-old migrant worker from West Bengal was allegedly killed in Odisha's Sambalpur district following an altercation over a bidi recently, police said.
Juel Sheikh was working, along with a few others from West Bengal, in the construction of a building in Shanti Nagar in the Ainthapalli police station area.
They were returning from work when a group of six men stopped them and asked for a bidi. An altercation broke out, leading to a scuffle between the two sides, police said.
Juel was thrashed severely, and he died while undergoing treatment at the Sambalpur hospital. The six accused persons have been arrested by the police.
West Bengal's ruling TMC claimed that Juel was beaten to death over suspicion that he was an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant.
