On the Covid-19 front, the Omicron wave moved from western Europe to the east. While countries like France, Spain or Italy seem to have passed the peak of contamination, eastern Europe is facing a very sharp increase in the number of cases.
With a lag of a few weeks compared to Western Europe, the wave linked to the Omicron variant is hitting the east of the Old Continent hard. ” All countries are growing exponentially. Some very fast, this is the case of RussiaUkraine, but also Slovakia or Romania, Polandthis is also the case for the Baltic States, this is also the case for Hungary », lists Pr Antoine Flahault, epidemiologist, who heads the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva.
” Very high and very violent »
“ And what we see is that Bulgaria and Croatia, on the other hand, could perhaps reach their epidemic peak. So we see that the wave seems not to be much longer than that which concerned the countries of western Europe, but very high and very violent »reports Antoine Flahaut again.
Less than half of the population vaccinated
However, in some of these countries, the vaccination coverage is far below that of the countries of Western Europe where more than three quarters of the population have had an injection. Thus, in Bulgaria, less than a third of the inhabitants received a dose. In Poland and Russia, about half. A situation which does not make it possible to break the wave of admissions to hospitals.
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