The Omicron variant of Covid-19, from which 60% of Europeans could be infected before March, may be the end of the pandemic in the region, considered on Sunday the director of the WHO for Europe.
“It is plausible that the region is nearing the end of the pandemic,” he told AFP. Hans Kluge, regional director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Europe, although he called for caution, given the versatility of the virus.
“As soon as the Omicron wave calms down, there will be global immunity for a few weeks and months, either thanks to the vaccine or because people will have been immunized by the infection, and also a drop due to seasonality,” he considered.
The WHO expects “a period of calm before the possible return of Covid-19 towards the end of the year, but not necessarily the return of the pandemic.”
In South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first detected, new cases have been falling in the last four weeks.
Along the same lines, the White House adviser in the fight against the pandemic in U.S, Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday that there could be a “turn” in the country’s situation.
There is no “endemic era”
However, Europe is not in an “endemic era”, which would allow the virus to be compared to that of a seasonal flu, stressed the head of the WHO.
“Endemic means (…) that we can foresee what is going to happen, this virus has surprised more than once, so we have to be careful,” Kluge insisted.
Not only does it continue to circulate Delta variant, but new ones could emerge.
“We will be much more resistant, even in the face of new variants,” he said on Sunday. Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, on the French chain LCI.
“We will be ready to adapt vaccines if necessary, particularly those using messenger RNA, to adapt them to deal with a virulent variant,” he said.
In the WHO European region, which includes 53 countries, some of which are in Central Asia, the organization estimates that 60% of the population could have been infected by Omicron between now and March 1.
In the 27 EU Member States, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein Y Norway, this variant, which appeared at the end of November and is more contagious than the Delta but less virulent, especially among those vaccinated, it is now the dominant one, according to the European health agency.
With an exponential increase in infections, the director of the WHO European office insisted on the need to change public policies to “minimize disruption and (…) protect vulnerable people.”
The goal, according to Kluge, is now to stabilize the health situation.
“Stabilize means that the sanitary system is no longer overwhelmed by Covid-19 and can continue to provide essential health services, which unfortunately have been greatly disrupted, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and immunization,” he stressed.
