Europe Still Under Intense Pressure from COVID-19: WHO

Copenhagen: Countries in Europe and central Asia are still under intense pressure from COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region has said.
 
The Region saw over 7 million newly reported cases of COVID-19 in the first week of 2022, more than doubling over a 2-week period.
 
As of January 10, 26 countries report that over 1% of their population is catching COVID-19 each week.

Fifty of the 53 countries in Europe and central Asia have now reported cases of Omicron. 
 
It is quickly becoming the dominant variant in western Europe and is now spreading in the Balkans.
 
At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) forecasts that more than 50% of the population in the Region will be infected with Omicron in the next 6–8 weeks.
 
According to WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, data collated in recent weeks confirms that Omicron is highly transmissible – because the mutations it has enable it to adhere to human cells more easily, and it can infect even those who have been previously infected or vaccinated.
 
"Allow me to reiterate that the currently approved vaccines do continue to provide good protection against severe disease and death, including for Omicron. But because of the unprecedented scale of transmission, we are now seeing rising COVID-19 hospitalizations. It is challenging health systems and service delivery in many countries where Omicron has spread at speed, and threatens to overwhelm in many more," he stated.
 
"I am also deeply concerned that as the variant moves east, we have yet to see its full impact in countries where levels of vaccination uptake are lower, and where we will see more severe disease in the unvaccinated," he added. 
 
Taking the example of Denmark, where Omicron cases have exploded in recent weeks, the COVID-19 hospitalization rate for unvaccinated patients was 6-fold higher than for those who were fully vaccinated in the week over Christmas. 
 
Data from the UK Obstetric Surveillance System shows 96% of pregnant women admitted to hospital with COVID-19 symptoms between May and October 2021 were unvaccinated, a third of whom required respiratory support.

 
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