WHO Europe warns of Covid-29 rise in eastern part of continent

The head of the World Health Organizationrsquos Europe office said Tuesday that health officials are turning their attention to growing rates of Covid19 infection in Eastern Europe where six countries mdash including Russia and Ukraine mdash have seen a doubling in case counts over the past two weeksDr Hans Kluge said the 53country region which stretches to former Soviet republics into central Asia has now tallied more than 165 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 18 million deaths linked to the pandemic mdash including 25000 in the last week aloneldquoToday our focus is towards the east of the WHO European regionrdquo Kluge said in Russian at a media briefing pointing to a surge in the highly transmissible omicron variant ldquoOver the past two weeks cases of Covid19 have more than doubled in six countries in this part of the region Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Georgia the Russian Federation and UkrainerdquoldquoAs anticipated the omicron wave is moving east 10 eastern member states have now detected this variantrdquo he said Omicron however is milder than previous variants and health care systems in most countries around the world arenrsquot under strainKluge sought to put an emphasis on improving vaccination rates which have lagged in Eastern Europe compared to the rest of the region He said less than 4037 of people over age 60 in Bosnia Bulgaria Kyrgyzstan Ukraine and Uzbekistan have completed a full Covid19 vaccine seriesHe called on governments and health officials ldquoto closely examine the local reasons influencing lower vaccine demand and acceptance and devise tailored interventions to increase vaccination rates urgently based on the contextspecific evidencerdquo He also said it was ldquonot the moment to lift measures that we know work in reducing the spread of Covid19rdquoTrudeau invokes emergency powers to quell protestsPrime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers Monday to quell the paralyzing protests by truckers and others angry over Canadarsquos Covid19 restrictions outlining plans not only to tow away their rigs but to strike at their bank accounts and their livelihoods ldquoThese blockades are illegal and if you are still participating the time to go home is nowrdquo he declaredIn invoking Canadarsquos Emergencies Act which gives the federal government broad powers to restore order Trudeau ruled out using the military His government instead threatened to tow away vehicles to keep essential services running freeze truckersrsquo personal and corporate bank accounts and suspend the insurance on their rigsTrudeau did not indicate when the new crackdowns would begin But he gave assurances the emergency measures ldquowill be timelimited geographically targeted as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to addressrdquo Virus surge begins to overwhelm Hong KongPeople lie in hospital beds outside Caritas Medical Centre in Hong Kong on Tuesday PicAFPHong Kongrsquos leader on Tuesday said a surge of coronavirus cases is overwhelming the cityrsquos emergency resources but defended strict measures that have been imposed Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the Chinese central government was extending help to the city which remains a nominally autonomous enclave ldquoSo far our measures to contain the spread of the disease remain legitimate and valid Lam told reporters ldquoThe problem we are facing is given the magnitude the pace of and the severity of this fifth waverdquo Lam said ldquoIt has outgrown our capacityrdquo1655116No of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours410565868Total no of cases worldwide5810880Total no of deaths worldwideSource WHOJohns HopkinsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever