NEW YORK, Europe Brief News – Europe could be moving towards “a kind of pandemic endgame”, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
“We were now entering a new phase of the disease,” regional director for WHO’s European region Hans Kluge said.
He further added that the Omicron was displacing Delta at unprecedented speed, making up a third of cases across the region.
“The pandemic is far from over. But I am hopeful we can end the emergency phase in 2022 and address other health threats that urgently require our attention,” said Kluge.
“Backlogs and waiting lists have grown, essential health services have been disrupted, and plans and preparations for climate-related health stresses and shocks have been put on hold across the region.”
Seasonal Disease
Kluge added COVID could become a seasonal disease in the months to come.
“It’s plausible that the region is moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame,” he explained. He also added that Omicron could infect 60% of Europeans by March.
Once the current surge of Omicron currently sweeping across Europe subsides, “there will be for quite some weeks and months a global immunity, either thanks to the vaccine or because people have immunity due to the infection, and also lowering seasonality”.
“We anticipate that there will be a period of quiet before COVID-19 may come back towards the end of the year, but not necessarily the pandemic coming back,” Kluge added.
The Omicron variant, which studies have shown is more contagious than Delta but generally leads to less severe infection among vaccinated people, has raised long-awaited hopes that COVID is starting to shift from a pandemic to a more manageable endemic illness like seasonal flu.
But Dr Kluge cautioned that it was still too early to consider the coronavirus endemic.
“There is a lot of talk about endemic but endemic means. That it is possible to predict what’s going to happen. This virus has surprised us more than once so we have to be very careful,” Dr Kluge added.
WHO: Half of Europe to Catch Omicron
The World Health Organization (WHO) has earlier said half of Europe will catch Omicron.
WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said a “west-to-east tidal wave” of Omicron was sweeping across the region. The Delta variant is on top of a surge, he added.
The projection was based on the seven million new cases reported across Europe in the first week of 2022.
The number of infections has more than doubled in a two-week period.
“Today the Omicron variant represents a new west-to-east tidal wave. It sweeps across the region on top of the Delta surge that all countries were managing until late 2021.”
“More than 50% of the population will be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks”.
The WHO has earlier warned of ‘tsunami’ of COVID cases in the near future. The declaration was 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.
