Neil Bowdler is a multimedia editor at RFE/RL.
Russia's parliament is considering the introduction of a federal QR code system to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The QR codes could only be used by those who have been vaccinated or who recently recovered from COVID-19 or by people who can't be vaccinated on medical grounds.
A family doctor in the town of Miercurea Ciuc in Romania's historic Transylvania region says many COVID patients are self-treating at home because they don't want to go to local hospitals. Marton Bokor, a former hospital director and ethnic Hungarian, says patients are renting oxygen equipment.
A COVID hospital in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is close to running out of beds with oxygen. Doctors say nearly all the patients need oxygen and 90 percent of them are not vaccinated. RFE/RL spoke to some of the patients, with many regretting their decision not to be inoculated.
The son of a COVID-19 patient in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv claims he had to pay the equivalent of more than $1,000 for medicines and other services after his father was hospitalized with the virus for 13 days.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced Lehel Ruzsa to close down his shop in Romania's Transylvania region for an extended period. But after taking a big economic hit, the ethnic Hungarian cobbler is back at work now, making his unique, handmade leather shoes.
To cut down on contamination from used cooking oil, a company in Kosovo is buying it from gourmet restaurants. The relatively cleaner oil from fryers in fancy kitchens is exported abroad, where it is recycled and converted into biodiesel.
Russia's COVID-19 deaths hit a new daily high of 984 on October 13 as the country continues to struggle with a rapid surge of infections and lagging vaccination rates. In the western Russian region of Ulyanovsk, 17 hospitals have set up 2,600 additional beds to face the crisis, but 2,500 are already full.
Bosnia-Herzegovina has recorded more COVID-19 deaths per capita than any other country in Europe. The highly infectious Delta variant has led to a new spike in cases, with most of the patients in serious condition unvaccinated. RFE/RL visited the Dr. Abdulah Nakas General Hospital in Sarajevo.
Communities on the Hour al-Azim marshes in Iran's Khuzestan Province say they're facing catastrophe. Marshes are drying up and piped-in drinking water is severely rationed by the authorities. Local residents say livestock are dying and farms are being abandoned.
The United Nations reports that 14 million Afghans are facing severe food insecurity, and an estimated 1 million Afghan children could die due to acute malnutrition.
More than 30 criminal cases have been opened in Ukraine involving fake COVID-19 vaccination certificates. Police recently detained one family doctor accused of selling counterfeit vaccine documents for about $200 each.
Russia has recorded a new high for daily deaths from COVID-19 as another wave sweeps across the country and vaccination rates stall. The latest daily death toll, published on September 28, showed 852 new fatalities -- the fourth record high in a month.
With the second-lowest vaccination rate in the European Union -- 34 percent of adults are fully inoculated -- Romania is bracing for a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials say only 32 intensive-care-unit beds are currently available and staff shortages mean they're struggling to add more.
Iran, one of the countries hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, is at risk of a fifth wave of infections, according to outgoing President Hassan Rohani, after the Delta variant led to a new spike in cases. Restrictions have been reimposed in cities, with parks, restaurants, and businesses closed.
From June 28, Moscow restaurants, cafes, and bars have been ordered to only serve guests who have been vaccinated, had COVID-19 within the last six months, or have had a negative PCR test within the previous three days.
The COVID-19 vaccination program in Pakistan's Sindh and Punjab provinces is being hampered by a shortage of vaccine doses. People in Sindh's provincial capital, Karachi, were turned away after lining up in the sun for inoculations.
Some 100,000 doses of a locally produced COVID-19 vaccine called QazVac have already been distributed in Kazakhstan -- before the publication of late-stage clinical trial data. Independent health experts say more data should have been released.
Several Russian regions have started vaccinating domestic animals against COVID-19 at veterinary clinics. Russia's agricultural safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor made the announcement on May 26.
A Belarusian journalist has been detained by police after the commercial passenger aircraft in which he was traveling from Greece to Lithuania was diverted to Minsk due to a purported bomb threat. Raman Pratasevich was taken away by police shortly after his Ryanair flight landed.
A Hungarian woman, Szilvia Bedo-Nagy, gave birth the day she was admitted to an intensive-care unit with COVID-19. She was put on a ventilator and then on an artificial lung and kept in an induced coma for 40 days but defied expectations and recovered.
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