The fourth wave hits Southeastern Europe hard

The southeastern europe has become the new focus of the pandemic coronavirus on Europe, with a virulent fourth wave that, fueled by low vaccination rates, has raised infection and mortality rates to absolute highs. Experts attribute the seriousness of the situation to the arrival of the cold and the spread of the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 – more contagious than previous strains – in poorly immunized populations.

The most recent data from the Our World in Data platform reveals a clear correlation between the low vaccination rates and the high mortality rates in the region, especially in the southeastern part of Europe.

Bulgaria, the poorest country in the European Union (EU), is at the tail end of immunization, with just 22.5% of the population fully immunized, and at the top in the mortality rate, with a daily average of almost 23 deaths per million inhabitants.

Bulgaria and Romania, in trouble

Bulgaria reported this Tuesday of a new daily death record by covid, with 334 deaths in the last 24 hours. In October alone, more than 3,000 people died, seven times more than in the same month last year. With 723 covid patients in intensive care, when the maximum capacity of the ucis is estimated between 750 and 800 beds, Bulgarian hospitals are on the brink of collapse.

Although Romania the number of infections has fallen by 50% in recent days, to about 10,000 daily cases, the situation is critical with more than 300 deaths a day and about 19,000 hospitalized, 10% of which are in ucis. A lots of hospitals continue to collapse or at the limit of their capacities, which has forced the transfer of dozens of patients to other countries and the suspension of non-urgent hospitalizations. Less than a third of the Romanian population has received the full course of a vaccine, making Romania the second least vaccinated country in the EU, only ahead of Bulgaria.

On Serbia, which is not a member of the EU, daily deaths have also increased in recent weeks, reaching a new high last Sunday, with 69 deaths. One of the problems in this country is that the percentage of immunized young people, between 18 and 30 years old, does not exceed 25%.

Ucis to the limit

Also in Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary, With immunization rates between 44 and 58%, hospitals are reaching out again with covid patients.

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Slovakia, with 5.4 million inhabitants, there are more than 2,100 hospitalized, with an average accumulated rate of daily infections in seven days that exceeds 700 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to official data. Slovenia, with 2 million inhabitants, registered a maximum of daily infections last week, with more than 4,500 infections in 24 hours, the maximum capacity of ucis has already been exceeded with almost 200 covid patients.

In Hungary, where the spread of covid continues to grow, with an average of 72 deaths a day while vaccination has stagnated in 60% of the population, the Government has given companies the green light so that they can demand vaccinations for their employees.