In its latest editorial, Gulf News have noted that the ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases in some countries may not result in lockdowns or rolling back of relaxed measures. However, there is a need for accelerating vaccination campaign across the world, noting that it is only way to combat the spread of Coronavirus.

Earlier this week, Britain's Department of Health reported 223 deaths due to COVID-19, the biggest toll since March this year. Furthermore, over the past 10 days the UK has registered a daily average 45,000 new cases.

According to the editorial, the unprecedented rise in COVID-19 infections prompted health sector officials to reintroduce some restrictions that had been eased in recent months in order to curb the spread of infections.

"In Russia, media reports said on Tuesday that the government proposed a weeklong workplace shutdown as the national death toll from COVID-19 hit yet another daily high. The national coronavirus task force reported 1,015 coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. On the same day, 33,740 new infections were registered by authorities," the paper added.

While the Russian government has ruled out new lockdown, restrictions are being eased with caution to limit the virus spread. Earlier, the mayor of Moscow announced four months of stay-home restrictions for unvaccinated citizens aged above 60 years.

Both the UK and Russia have ensured exceptional efforts to vaccinate their population. However, experts have pointed out that the process has been slow, despite all possible efforts to speed up the pace of vaccination. Currently, Russia has 32 percent of its population fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Notably, it is quite low as compared to countries across the world. In the UK, scientists have argued that the British government's reliance on the AstraZeneca vaccine has slowed the inoculation process.

The UK and European countries are reporting cases of new Delta subvariant over the past few days. While the AY 4.2. is said to be rare and does not appear to pose the same risk of increased transmission as other strains, it still amplifies the need for speeding up the vaccination drive across the world.

"Countries that have achieved a significant rate of vaccination seems to have not only flattened the curve of infections but are increasingly able to bring back life to near normalcy," the editorial wrote.

For instances, the UAE has administered over 20 million vaccine doses with a population of less than 10 million people. The country is witnessing steady return to normalcy to pre-pandemic levels with students back in schools, employees at work, and thousands of people travelling to Dubai for the largest public event globally -Expo 2020 Dubai.

For months now, health experts and WHO officials have been urging world governments to accelerate their vaccination process and not to allow conspiracy theorists to hamper the process and jeopardise the health and wellbeing of millions of people.

"To remain vigilant, wearing the face mask and exercising caution in crowded places is a necessary. But there is no alternative to the vaccine to beat this deadly virus," the Dubai-based daily wrote in conclusion. 

WAM