Roshan Abraham, Rittik Biswas

(Reuters) – Worldwide COVID-19 cases were close to 250 million as the Delta variant surge eases. However, some eastern European countries are still experiencing records for outbreaks.

A Reuters analysis shows that the daily average case count has dropped by 36% over the last three month.

The analysis revealed that even though spread is slowing down, 50 million people are still being infected every 90 days by the highly transmissible Delta virus. To record the 50 million first COVID cases, it took more than a year.

Although experts believe many countries are now free from the effects of the pandemic, health professionals warn that there is still the possibility that more people could be affected by cold weather or holiday events.

Maria Van Kerkhove (an epidemiologist at the World Health Organisation), stated that she believes between now and 2022 this will be the time when we have control of the virus… and where we can reduce the severity and death rates.”

Doctors now have more options than ever before for treating patients with vaccines. Britain became the first nation to approve the potentially life-saving COVID-19 vaccine, Molnupiravir. It was jointly developed and approved by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics (Merck) and Britain. It could reduce the risk of death and hospitalization for people most vulnerable to severe COVID-19 if given in a timely manner, according to studies.

Infections are still rising in 55 out of 240 countries, with Russia, Ukraine and Greece https://tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi at or near record levels of reported cases since the pandemic started two years ago, according to a Reuters analysis.

Eastern Europe has among the lowest vaccination rates https://tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi in the region. According to analysis, more than half of new infections worldwide came from Europe. There are approximately a million infections every four days.

As Russia experiences record-breaking deaths from COVID-19, several Russian regions indicated this week that they may impose more restrictions on workers or prolong a shutdown at work to combat the rising number of cases.

Our World in Data reports that more than half of the global population have not yet received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Below 5% of low-income people have attained at least one dose.

Last month, World Health Organization and other aid organizations appealed to world leaders to support a $23.4 billion plan that will bring COVID-19 drugs, vaccines and tests to less developed countries over the next 12 mois.

Jarbas Barbosa Assistant Director of PAHO, urges authorities to give priority to the elderly and frontline workers to ensure they are not overburdening healthcare systems.