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THE HAGUE. – New COVID-19 infections are surging across most countries in Europe as the weather becomes colder, prompting concern that the continent has become an epicentre of the pandemic and posing questions on how to flatten the spike.

Experts are appealing to European countries to adopt a two-fold approach consisting of high vaccination rates and continued prevention tactics such as ventilation and mask-wearing.

Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, warned last week that the current pace of transmission across the European Region “is of grave concern.”

“We are, once again, at the epicentre,” Kluge said, warning that if Europe follows its current trajectory, there could be 50 ,000 Covidrelated deaths in the region by February. Last week, Europe and Central Asia accounted for almost half of the world’s reported Covid-19 deaths.

Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Xinhua that Europe needs to “get vaccination rates up higher in all countries … especially in those where rates are still low.”

According to the latest cumulative uptake in the European Union (EU) and three countries of the European Free Trade Association – Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 75,7 percent of adult population is fully vaccinated, while 80,8 percent have had at least one dose.

Vaccination penetration is not equally spread across the EU. It ranges from high levels in counties such as Portugal, Malta and Spain, where more than 80 percent of the adults have been fully vaccinated, to as low as 39,6 percent and 26,5 percent in Romania and Bulgaria respectively, which hold the lowest vaccination rates among adults in the EU.

Romania and Bulgaria reported this week their highest death tolls since the beginning of the pandemic.

However, even countries with high vaccination rates are reporting a high number of infections. Germany, where 79,8 percent of the adult population has been vaccinated, has seen high spikes in cases, reporting 37,120 new infections on Friday as colder temperatures lead to more socializing indoors.

In the Netherlands, where adult vaccination has reached 84.1 percent, new infections topped 10,000 over 24 hours from Wednesday to Thursday, the highest since July 18.

To contain the spread of the virus, current vaccination rates are not sufficient even among those EU countries which have achieved high rates of vaccination, experts suggest.

“Seventy percent is nowhere near enough. We need to get rates up to in excess of 95 percent,” McKee said.

Boosting vaccination rates is not the only source of concern. Coping with waning immunity is also worrying.

“We are also beginning to see waning immunity in those who were vaccinated first and who have not yet been boosted,” McKee noted.

“The number of people who absolutely refuse vaccines is very small. A greater problem is that many people are finding difficulties getting vaccines easily in many countries. We need to make getting vaccines as easy as possible,” he said.

Britain and countries across the EU have widely relaxed social-distancing restrictions over the summer. But as the fourth wave of the pandemic is breaking out through Europe, several governments are re-imposing measures to cope with the tide of increasing infection numbers. In the Netherlands, the caretaker government put in place new COVID-19 rules, which include mandatory mask-wearing in public indoor spaces and a recommendation to work from home, starting from Saturday.

In Belgium, where 86 percent of the adult population has been fully vaccinated, Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke called upon people “to get ready to work from home.”

Speaking on local radio show “de Ochtend” on Friday, the Belgian health minister cautioned “if this surge continues, we will exceed the critical number of 500 people in intensive care”.

To face the accelerating pace of the pandemic in Europe, McKee warned that “we need to avoid relying on vaccines alone.”

Echoing Kluge, who stressed that Europe needs to change tactics from reacting to surges of COVID-19 to preventing them, McKee said: “The main concern is that we need a Vaccine Plus strategy, which combines high rates of vaccination with continued mitigations, in particular improved ventilation and face masks.”

McKee cautioned that concern is growing among experts that a new mutation might worsen the situation. -Xinhua