(Copenhagen) More than half of Europeans could be affected by the Omicron variant within two months, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), but this “tidal wave” which is also hitting the States- United could, through natural immunity and vaccination, turn COVID-19 into an endemic disease that the world can live with, US and European health officials said Tuesday.
Updated at 8:27 p.m. yesterday
At the rate of 2.5 million additional daily cases over the past seven days, according to an AFP count, the pandemic continues its meteoric progression across the planet, two years after the announcement of the first official death from the coronavirus in China.
Europe is the region with the most cases in the world today, over 7.9 million in the past seven days (45% of the global total), followed by the United States – Canada zone (5.6 million, 32%).
“At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) predicts that more than 50% of the region’s population will be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks,” warned the director of WHO Europe. , Hans Kluge.
A little more than six weeks after the identification of Omicron in South Africa, data from several countries converge on two points: this variant is transmitted much faster than the previously dominant one, Delta, and seems overall to cause less serious forms. of disease.
” To live with ”
For the European Medicines Agency, the meteoric spread of Omicron will turn COVID-19 into an endemic disease that humanity can learn to live with.
“With the increase in immunity in the population – and with Omicron there will be a lot of natural immunity in addition to vaccination – we will move quickly towards a scenario that will be closer to endemicity,” said Marco. Cavaleri, EMA’s head of vaccine strategy, based in Amsterdam.
In the United States, which recorded a new record on Tuesday with nearly 146,000 hospital patients, the White House adviser on the health crisis, Anthony Fauci, also hinted at a period of “transition”, after which he will become possible to “live with” the virus.
“As Omicron goes up and down, I hope we’re going to have a situation with […] a combination of good substantive immunity and the ability to treat someone at risk, ”he said. “We’re not at the point where we can say in an acceptable way, ‘live with’ […], but I think we’ll get there ”.
In the meantime, governments remain faced with the delicate choice between health restrictions and preserving the economy and the functioning of society in general.
Especially since global growth will slow this year and a worst-case scenario is not excluded under the effect of Omicron, whose spread accentuates labor shortages and logistical problems, the World Bank warned on Tuesday. .
Chinese mega-cities confined
China, which largely contained the epidemic in early 2020, has once again confined several of its mega-cities, with the approach of the Beijing Winter Olympics (February 4 to 20).
The latest, Anyang, in central Henan province, ordered its five million residents to stay at home.
In Hong Kong, nurseries and primary schools are closed until early February.
Japan has extended the ban on entry of most foreign nationals to its soil until the end of February, and will reopen mass vaccination centers.
WHO experts said on Tuesday that fighting the COVID-19 pandemic with booster doses of current vaccines was not a viable strategy, calling for vaccines that better prevent transmission.
On Tuesday, French scientific authorities said they were studying the hypothesis of a fourth dose of vaccine against COVID-19 for the elderly, even if this question is for the moment “premature”, according to the Ministry of Health.
The Israeli government for its part has already given the green light to a 4e dose for vulnerable people.
Faced with the reluctance of an unvaccinated minority, Quebec announced on Tuesday the creation of a new tax affecting only unvaccinated people who, according to Prime Minister François Legault, come to “clog” hospitals and represent “a financial burden for all Quebecers ”.