Europe will have ‘high levels’ of Covid-19 infections in the summer, says WHO

“The virus will not disappear just because countries have stopped monitoring it. It continues to infect, it continues to change and it continues to kill.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) told AFP on Thursday that the Europe will register “high levels” in Covid-19 in this summer and called for monitoring the virus after the number of daily infections tripled in a month.

“As countries in Europe have suspended social measures in place, the virus will circulate at high levels during the summer,” said Hans Kluge, the UN organization’s director for Europe.

“The virus will not disappear just because countries have stopped monitoring it. It continues to infect, it continues to change and it continues to kill,” he said in a statement to AFP.

Due to the BA.5 subvariant of the omicron, the number of infections recorded in the 53 countries of WHO Europe this week approached 500,000 daily. At the end of May it was at 150,000 nights, according to data from the organization.

The death toll remains at a low level with around 500 deaths a day, a level reached in the summer of 2020. During part of the winter, the death toll reached 4,000-5,000 a day.

Almost all European countries report an increase in infections.

“We hope that the extensive vaccination programs in most member states, in addition to past infections, will mean that we will avoid the most serious consequences that we saw early in the pandemic,” Kluge said.

“However, our recommendations remain in effect,” he added. Kluge also stressed the importance of continuing to monitor the virus.

Otherwise, “it makes us increasingly blind to the forms of contagion and [sua] evolution”, highlighted the expert.

Source: AFP