Geneva, July 19 : World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge on Tuesday predicted challenging autumn and winter in Europe amid continuous rise of Covid-19 cases
Kluge said, “It’s now abundantly clear we’re in a similar situation to last summer – only this time the ongoing COVID-19 wave is being propelled by sub-lineages of the Omicron variant, notably BA.2 and BA.5, with each dominant sub-lineage of Omicron showing clear transmission advantages over the previously circulating viruses.
“With rising cases, we’re also seeing a rise in hospitalizations, which are only set to increase further in the autumn and winter months as schools reopen, people return from holidays and social mixing moves indoors with the onset of colder weather. This forecast presents a huge challenge to the health workforce in country after country, already under enormous pressure from dealing with unrelenting crises since 2020.”
He further said that the rising number of cases must be “urgently tackled.”
“WHO/Europe is releasing its autumn/winter strategy for Covid-19 and other respiratory viruses – to help prepare for the coming waves of infection. Waiting for the autumn to act will be too late,” he pointed out.
The strategy will be urging countries to relaunch mitigation efforts and be ready to respond to an increased burden on their health-care systems.