London, Europe Brief News – The World Health Organization’s (WHO) declared that Europe will soon enter a “long period of tranquillity” in the Covid-19 pandemic.
WHO’s Europe Director Hans Kluge cited high vaccination rates, the end of winter and the less severe nature of the Omicron variant.
Speaking to reporters, he said: “This period of higher protection should be seen as a ‘ceasefire’ that could bring us enduring peace.”
It comes as a number of European nations end Covid-19 restrictions.
Kluge said some 12 million new virus cases were detected across Europe last week – the highest recorded – but officials have not seen a significant spike in those needing critical hospital care.
But, Kluge urged European nations to continue with their vaccination campaigns and surveillance of strains, despite his talk of a “ceasefire”.
But he said he was confident the continent would be in a “better position… even with a more virulent variant” than Omicron.
“I believe that it is possible to respond to new variants that will inevitably emerge without re-installing the kind of disruptive measures we needed before,” Dr Kluge added.
The WHO has earlier warned of ‘tsunami’ of COVID cases due to Omicron spread.
The WHO further warned of the risk posed by the Omicron variant after COVID-19 case numbers shot up by 11 percent globally last week.
Omicron is behind the rapid virus spikes, the WHO said in its COVID weekly epidemiological update on Wednesday.
The update came after a number of countries reported record-high infection figures in recent days.
In some parts, the increase has been compounded by the emergence of the new Omicron variant, first detected in South Africa.
