“The pandemic is not over” insisted the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Friday 16 July, reporting a 64.3% increase in Covid-19 cases in the EU and European Economic Area (EEA) during the week compared to the previous one.
This increase, which mainly affects 15-24 year olds, has been observed in twenty countries (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain).
ECDC also expects an increase in deaths in Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.
For the time being, however, hospital occupancy rates remain stable for the EU/EEA area as a whole. Those for intensive care units have been decreasing for nine weeks.
However, trends of increasing rates are being reported in a few states and ECDC believes that the “current continuing deterioration of the epidemiological situation in many countries is expected to continue given the rapid increase in the Delta variant”.
The institution presents full vaccination as “vital” for optimal protection. It notes that by the end of this week, 63.4% of Europeans over 18 had received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and 48% of them had been fully vaccinated.
For more details: https://bit.ly/3kqyexG (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)