The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that several European countries that “brutally” lifted their restrictions once morest covid-19like Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, now face a sharp rise in cases caused, for the most part, by the subvariant of Omicron BA.2.
At a press conference in Moldova, the WHO director for Europe, Hans Kluge, pointed out that the number of new cases in Europe had managed to drop since the end of January but picked up at the beginning of March.
Specifically, the official specified, a increase in infections in 18 of the 53 countries in the European area of the agency.
“Countries where we see a particular increase are the UK, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, France, Italy and Germany.nations that “have brutally lifted restrictions,” Kluge lamented.
In the last seven days, in the WHO European zone, more than 5.1 million new cases and 12,496 deathswhich brings the number of infections to almost 194.4 million since the pandemic began and the number of deaths to more than 1.92 million.
This increase, according to experts, is explained by the predominance of the Ómicron BA.2 subvariant, 30% more contagious –but not more dangerous– than its predecessor, BA.1, and by the premature lifting of the public health policies.
Faced with this scenario, Kluge asked continue to “monitor” the epidemiological situation of the continent, although he acknowledged that he currently feels “optimistic“since” there is a great capital of immunity thanks to both vaccination and infections, “he said.
Kluge also highlighted as a positive factor that with the boreal winter over “People will gather less in closed spaces.”
In addition, he celebrated Omicron variant “is less virulent in people fully vaccinated with a booster dose”although “in the countries with the lowest vaccination rates it is still a disease that kills”.
“We are going to have to live with covid-19 for a while yet, but that does not mean that we cannot end the pandemic,” the official concluded.
