Copenhagen Jan 11 (BNA): There were more than 7 million new cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 across Europe in the first week of January, more than double in just two weeks, the World Health Organization said.
26 countries in its region have reported more than 1% of their population contracting COVID-19 each week, WHO Director for Europe Dr Hans Kluge said at a media briefing on Tuesday, warning that there is now a “closed window of opportunity.” The Associated Press (AP) reports that states are preventing their health systems from being overwhelmed.
He cited estimates from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics suggesting that half the population in Western Europe will contract COVID-19 in the next six to eight weeks.
“Omicron is moving faster and wider than any (previous) variant we’ve seen,” he said. Kluge called on countries to enforce the use of masks indoors and to prioritize vaccination, including booster doses, for vulnerable populations, including health workers and the elderly.
The World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva has previously appealed to rich countries not to provide booster doses and to donate them instead to poor countries where vulnerable groups have not yet been immunized.
Kluge said he was very concerned that as Omicron moved east across the European continent, the alternative would further affect countries with lower vaccination coverage rates. In Denmark, he indicated that the hospitalization rate due to coronavirus was six times higher in people who had not been vaccinated compared to those who had been vaccinated.
AOQ