Nearly 80% of EU's population estimated to have been infected with COVID

BELGIUM,INDIA: Nearly 80 per cent of the European Union’s population is estimated to have been infected by COVID-19, the bloc’s executive body has said. The figures were reached by calculating the unreported infections that could be as high as 350 million or 77 per cent of Europe’s population, the European Commission said, Bloomberg reported.

As the EU prepares to enter a post-emergency phase in which mass reporting of cases is no longer necessary, governments should ramp up vaccination of children against the virus, a senior official of the European Commission said, adding that it is considering plans to develop antivirals.

“It is estimated that between 60 per cent to 80 per cent of the EU population has by now had COVID,” EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said. The commission said reported cases covered about 30 per cent of the European population so far. Meanwhile, India on Thursday reported 3,303 fresh COVID-19 cases that took its tally to 43,068,799, while the active cases increased to 16,980, according to Union Health Ministry data.

The daily cases crossed the 3,000-mark after 46 days. The death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 5,23,693 with 39 more fatalities.

The active cases comprise 0.04 per cent of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.74 per cent, the ministry said.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 42,528,126, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.22 per cent, it said.

The total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive has exceeded 188.40 crore.

– THE STATESMAN, PTI