Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine has brought COVID-19 vaccination to a halt, the World Health Organization said Thursday, raising concerns that the illness will continue to spread. “Prior to the invasion, at least 50 000 people were getting vaccinated against COVID-19 per day,” the WHO said in a statement on the crisis. “Between 24 February and 15 March, however, only 175 000 people were vaccinated against COVID-19.” Almost 7 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and almost 4 million have fled to neighboring countries. “That means that 1 in 4 Ukrainians are now forcibly displaced, aggravating the condition of those suffering from noncommunicable diseases,” the agency warned. Ukraine, and Russia, had low vaccination rates before the start of Russia’s attack, and Russia had the most deaths in Europe.
The U.S. COVID numbers continue to decline and the nation is now averaging 30,259 new cases a day, according to a New York Times tracker, down 19% from two weeks ago, but slightly higher than Wednesday’s count. The average daily number of hospitalizations stands at 20,463, down 39% from two weeks ago. Deaths are averaging 919 a day, down 33% from two weeks ago, but still an undesirably high number. Globally, there have been 475.8 million confirmed cases, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, and 6.1 million deaths. The U.S. leads the world with 79.8 million cases and 974,830 fatalities.
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