Covid surge puts Europe at epicentre of pandemic again

"We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence," he also said, calling on countries to scale up their efforts to prevent a worsening situation.

"We must change our tactics, from reacting to surges of Covid-19, to preventing them from happening in the first place," Kluge added.

New cases in the WHO 43-countries region have increased by six percent over the last week, compared to the week before. And the number of deaths has also jumped by 12 percent over the same period.

Meanwhile, hospitalisations have also doubled in one week.

However, Kluge warned that Europe will face "high to extreme stress on hospital beds" at some point by February next year, if the region follows the current trajectory.

He added that the rapid increase in infections in the older population groups is "of most concern," especially because this is translating into more severe diseases and deaths.

Currently, 75 percent of fatalities are among people aged 65 or older – although the picture varies significantly among countries.

Kluge said the countries where vaccine uptake was low, like in the Baltics, central and eastern Europe and the Balkans, hospital admissions were "markedly higher".

"Europe is back at the epicenter of the pandemic – where we were one year ago," he pointed out, arguing that the difference today is that public authorities know more and can do more to reduce the virus spread.

Several countries in central and eastern Europe have seen an increase in daily cases over the last weeks.

Due to high hospital occupancy rate and ICU admissions, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been categorised as of "very high concern" by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, a Stockholm-based EU agency.

"The epidemiological situation in Europe is very concerning now as we head into the winter with increases in infection rates, hospitalisation and we can also see the increase in fatalities," said Fergus Sweeney, head of clinical studies and manufacturing task force from the European Medicines Agency.

He stressed that it was very important for the public to get fully vaccinated.

In Bulgaria, the EU's least-vaccinated nation, less than 27 percent adult population has received two jabs of a Covid-19 vaccine.

In comparison, more than 90 percent of the adult population in Ireland, Malta and Portugal are fully vaccinated.