Russia will shut workplaces for a week, Latvia went back into lockdown for at least a month and Romanian funeral homes are running out of coffins, as vaccine-sceptic countries across eastern Europe face a fresh surge of Covid-19 infections and deaths.

Russia, which boasted of developing one of the earliest Covid-19 vaccines, has been unable to persuade large swathes of the population to take it, and is now facing its highest daily death rates of the pandemic.

President Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday that the period from October 30-November 7 would be “non-working days”, although salaries would still be paid.

Public hostility to vaccination has hit other eastern European countries that were within Moscow’s orbit during the Cold War. The EU states with the lowest vaccination rates are all part of the former eastern bloc, including Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Poland, Latvia and Estonia.

Romania, where one person is dying of Covid-19 every five minutes, had the world’s highest death rate per capita this week, with Bulgaria close behind.

EU’s first new lockdown

Latvia has imposed a month-long lockdown, becoming the first EU country to shut down again since the bloc began reopening this year as vaccines became widely available.

Bulgaria, where only a quarter of the population has taken a first dose of vaccine, banned access to indoor public spaces this week for anyone who cannot show proof of vaccination, a negative test or recovery from a recent infection.

Poland’s health minister said on Wednesday “drastic measures” could be needed to respond to a sudden surge of infections there, although he said no new lockdown was being considered.

Concern in Britain, too

Health chiefs in the UK have urged the government to legally enforce some of the Covid-19 prevention measures, such as mandatory face coverings in enclosed spaces, as infections in Britain continue to spike over the 40,000 mark daily.

The NHS Confederation, a membership body of the country’s National Health Service (NHS), said a back-up strategy, or “Plan B plus”, is required as pre-emptive action over winter. The warning comes as the UK hit a daily high of 43,738 cases and 223 deaths on Tuesday.

Bolsonaro says ‘guilty of nothing’ amid charges

After Brazil’s senators said Jair Bolsonaro should be charged for nine crimes, including charlatanism, malfeasance and crimes against humanity in their conclusion of a probe into the government’s handling of the pandemic, the president insisted he’s “guilty of nothing”.

A Senate commission presented a final report on Wednesday after six months of hearings. Bolsonaro is largely blamed for Brazil’s erratic handling of the pandemic, dismissing it as just a flu, shunning masks and vaccines, and asking supporters to ignore restrictions