Dec 30 (Reuters) – Coronavirus deaths in Eastern Europe topped 1 million on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as the Omicron variant threatened to batter the region.
Three out of the five countries reporting the highest number of daily deaths in Europe are from the East, including Russia, Poland and Ukraine, Reuters data through Thursday showed.
“I am scared because it is a huge number of daily deaths – huge, unimaginable,” said Bozena Adamowicz, a pensioner from Warsaw.
Eastern Europe makes up 39% of the region’s population and has reported more than half the total COVID-related deaths in Europe, according to the Reuters tally.
The death toll in Eastern Europe reached 1,045,454 on Thursday, compared with 1,873,253 in all of Europe.
The region includes Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine.
Poland reported 794 COVID-related deaths on Wednesday. It was a record high for the fourth wave of the pandemic, although the figure may have been inflated by delayed reporting due to Christmas.
Dr. Michal Sutkowski, spokesperson for the College of Family Physicians in Poland, blamed the rising toll in Poland on an overloaded healthcare system, a lack of knowledge and the relative reluctance to get vaccinated compared to the West, including for the most vulnerable groups.
