Covid chaos grips the East and uncertainty haunts the West. Europe is entering its second pandemic winter

Despite the widescale availability of vaccines this winter compared to the last, Europe is the only part of the world reporting an increase in new Covid-19 cases globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday. This is the third consecutive week the region has recorded a rise in cases, it added. The suffering has been acute in Eastern Europe and Russia, battling mounting deaths and cases fueled by vaccine hesitancy that has seen coverage rates dip as low as 24%, Western Europe is also driving the rise in Covid-19 cases despite some countries enjoying “There are two ways at this crossroads: vaccination or lockdown,” Zelensky said in a televised interview with Ukrainian broadcast channel ICTV on Monday. “Every day we face this challenge and this choice. I am totally against lockdown… because of the economy.” But by Friday, schools in Ukrainian Covid hotspots were shut down and the government announced vaccine certificates or a negative test to access public transport in the capital after daily deaths hit a record 614, This won’t be enough amid skyrocketing cases that can be fertile ground for the creation of new variants. On Friday, the UK Health Security Agency designated a descendent of the Delta variant, AY.4.2, a “varient under investigation” due to “some early evidence that it may have an increased growth rate in the UK compared to Delta,” the government agency wrote. “The UK the strategy has been very much focused on letting vaccinations do all the work. And I don’t think that’s going to be enough,” Drobac said. It’s a dangerous strategy that relies on the unvaccinated, like children, getting infected to create a “level of overall population immunity from natural infection and vaccination,” he said. “The problem with that, of course, is that it not only allows for some unacceptably high level of hospitalization and death, but also that it may not work,” he added. As the UK drags its feet on new measures, Ireland is holding off on dropping pandemic restrictions amid a resurgence of cases despite having one of Europe’s highest vaccination rates — of 92% of the population fully vaccinated, according to the ECDC. During a press conference last Tuesday, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said Covid-19 vaccine passes will remain in place for indoor hospitality and events, masks will continue to be mandatory in indoor public spaces, and indoor hospitality will be confined to table service only.Europe needs to not “sleepwalk” its way to lockdowns and deaths of last winter, Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, said Wednesday. We don’t know what the epidemic period will be in two months, three months’ time…we are going to have to be a little cautious … a little careful.” Tara John wrote and reported from London. Rob Picheta, Niamh Kennedy, Ivana Kottasová, Frederik Pleitgen, Hannah Ritchie, Sharon Braithwaite, Allegra Goodwin, and Katharina Krebs contributed to this piece.