At least one World Health Organization official believes that Europe’s coronavirus plight may be slowing down soon.
Dr. Hans Kluge, who leads WHO’s Europe office, believes a “singular opportunity” is approaching for European countries to control the transmission of COVID-19 thanks to three factors.
Those factors include high levels of immunization, warmer weather making viral spread harder, and the lower severity of the omicron variant, the WHO official claimed, the Associated Press reported. “This period of higher protection should be seen as a ceasefire that could bring us enduring peace,” Kluge said.
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Kluge claims that the spring season “leaves us with the possibility for a long period of tranquility and a much higher level of population defense against any resurgence in transmission.” If another variant does arrive, like how omicron did in late November, Kluge believes that European health authorities will be able to keep it in check, assuming that immunization and boosting efforts continue.
Kluge noted that while there were 12 million new coronavirus cases in Europe last week, they have not seen hospital admissions rise significantly over that same period.
While Kluge is hopeful that the virus may be controllable by spring in Europe, other officials appear skeptical.
“We are concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines, and because of omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity, preventing transmission is no longer possible and no longer necessary,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
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Tedros said that 90 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported to the WHO since the omicron variant was discovered in late November, which is more than was reported in 2020.
Despite this rise, Tedros emphasized that the WHO is not calling for countries to lockdown again, but that all countries “protect their people using every tool in the toolkit, not vaccines alone.”
