“The countries where we are seeing a particular increase are the United Kingdom, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, France, Italy and Germany,” the director of WHO Europe pointed out during a conference. press Tuesday. “These countries have lifted the restrictions abruptly from ‘too much’ to ‘not enough’,” he said.
Has Europe gone too fast in easing restrictions in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic? Several European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, raised too much “brutally” their measures and are facing a sharp rise in cases under the effect of the BA.2 sub-variant, deplores the World Health Organization, Tuesday March 22.
The director of the WHO in Europe, Hans Kluge, said to himself “vigilant” on the current epidemic situation on the continent, while affirming to remain “optimistic”. The number of Covid-19 cases is on the rise in 18 of the 53 countries in the WHO Europe zone. “The countries where we see a particular rise are the UK, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, France, Italy and Germany”underlined Hans Kluge during a press conference in Moldova. “These countries have lifted restrictions abruptly from ‘too much’ to ‘not enough'”he estimated.
According to the WHO, the number of new cases in Europe had fallen sharply after a peak at the end of January, but it has rebounded since the beginning of March. According to epidemiologists, this rebound is explained in particular by the predominance of the sub-variant of Omicron BA.2, approximately 30% more contagious but not more dangerous than its predecessor.
Over the past seven days, more than 5.1 million new cases and 12,496 deaths have been recorded in the WHO Europe area.
“We’re going to have to live with Covid for a while yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get rid of the pandemic”, said Hans Kluge. Positive side, “there is a very large capital of immunity (…) whether through vaccination or infections”, he noted. Next, “Winter is ending so people will gather less in small confined spaces”.
It is therefore now a question of focusing on four priorities according to him: “protect the vulnerable”, “strengthen surveillance and sequencing”, “provide more countries with access to new antiviral drugs” and “addressing the burden of post-Covid or long Covid”