The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that expects “high levels” of Covid-19 in Europe this summer. It also urged countries to monitor the spread as cases tripled in the past month, AFP reported.
“Since the countries of the European region canceled the measures that were in force, the virus will be transmitted at high rates during the summer“, said WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge. This virus will not disappear just because countries stop looking for it. It is still spreading, still changing and still taking lives.”
With the lighter but more infectious Omicron BA.5 subvariant spreading across the continent, The 53 countries in the WHO European Region currently register just under 500,000 case per day, according to the organization’s data.
This is up from about 150,000 cases per day at the end of May.
Austria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg and Portugal are the countries with the highest incidence rate, with almost all countries in the region seeing an increase in cases.
The Omicron rages in Thessalonica
The city is in the red zone
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After registering up to 5,000 deaths per day for most of the winter, Europe currently has about 500 deaths per day, about the same level as in the summer of 2020.
“We hope that the strong vaccine programs that most member states have implemented along with previous infection will mean that we will avoid the more severe consequences that we saw earlier in the pandemic,” Kluge said. However, our recommendations remain,” he stressed.
WHO has called on people to who have symptoms to isolate themselves, keep up with their vaccinations and wear masks in busy places.
Kluge also called on member states to continue testing for the virus.
“We have to keep looking for the virus because it makes us increasingly blind to the patterns of transmission and the evolution of the virus,” Kluge said.
He also urged countries to increase vaccination rates.
“High population immunity and choices made to reduce risk for the elderly is key to preventing further mortality this summer,” he said.
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The EU has extended the use of the COVID certificates for another year
Because of the increasing cases
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