Europe entering ‘plausible endgame’ to COVID-19 pandemic, World Health Organization says

Europe is entering the “plausible endgame” of the coronavirus pandemic, a director of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

Dr. Hans Kluge, who is the WHO regional director for Europe, said the region had recorded 12 million new COVID-19 cases in the last week, with 30% of all cases since the pandemic began being reported this year alone.

Kluge said “for now, the number of deaths across the region is starting to plateau.” He said there is an “opportunity to take control of transmission” because many are immune to Omicron through either natural infection or vaccination.

Dr. Kluge said there is a “favourable seasonal pause as we move out of winter,” while the “lower severity of the Omicron variant” is also helping.

“This context, that we have not experienced so far in this pandemic, leaves us with the possibility for a long period of tranquillity and a much higher level of population defence against any resurge in transmission, even with a more virulent variant,” he said. “This period of higher protection should be seen as a ceasefire that could bring us enduring peace.”

Dr. Kluge said Europe must continue to “preserve immunity by keeping vaccinating and boosting,” protect the most vulnerable, promote “self-protecting behaviour and individual responsibility” and “intensify surveillance to detect new variants.”

Kluge suggested that new variants are inevitable but suggested previous lockdown measures will not be needed. “I believe that it is possible to respond to new variants that will inevitably emerge without reinstalling the kind of disruptive measures we needed before,” he said.

“And it is because we see that opportunity that the top priority is to bring all countries to a level of protection which allows them to grasp this opportunity too, and look ahead towards more stable days.”

“But this demands a drastic and uncompromising increase in vaccine-sharing across borders. We cannot accept vaccine inequity for one more day – vaccines must be for everyone, in the remotest corner of our vast region and beyond.”

On Tuesday, the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned the wider world is still far from seeing an end to the pandemic.

“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,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”