Covid contaminations have been increasing in the 22 nations of the eastern Mediterranean region, following two months of consistent decrease, due to increased international traveling, poor hygiene conditions or restrictions in terms of providing vaccines, World Health Organization authorities said Wednesday.
The district, which incorporates the Gulf, North African and Asian nations, has registered more than 11 million contaminations and more than 220,000 deaths since last year. Iran has been the most noticeably terribly affected by the pandemic, Iraq coming up second.
The regional director of WHO, Ahmed Al-Mandhari, said that another spike is possible during the summer period as nations battle to keep their borders open and their economies going. Notwithstanding efforts to contain the infection, a higher day-to-day number of new cases has been accounted for across the region, in comparison with a similar time last year, he said.
This is a direct result of different factors, including the discovery of the Delta variant in 13 out of the 22 nations, and the scarcity of enough vaccines.