The World Health Organization announced on Tuesday that coronavirus cases have tripled across Europe in the past six weeks, accounting for almost half of all infections worldwide. Hospitalization rates have also doubled, although ICU admissions have remained low. In a statement on Tuesday, the WHO director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, described COVID-19 as “an unpleasant and potentially deadly disease” that people should not underestimate. He said the micron variant’s super-infectious relatives are driving new waves of disease across the continent, and that repeated infections could potentially lead to long-lasting COVID. The WHO said the 53 countries in the European region, which stretches to central Asia, reported nearly 3 million new coronavirus infections last week and that the virus was killing about 3,000 people each week. Globally, cases of COVID-19 have increased over the past five weeks, even as countries have scaled back testing. “With increasing cases, we are also seeing an increase in hospitalizations, which are only expected to increase further in the fall and winter,” Kluge said. “This forecast poses a huge challenge to the health workforce from country to country, which is already under enormous pressure facing unrelenting crises from 2020.” Earlier this week, editors of two British medical journals said the country’s National Health Service had never before had so many parts of the system so close to collapse. Kamran Abbasi of the BMJ and Alastair McLellan of the Health Service Journal wrote in a joint article that the UK government has failed to tackle persistent problems exacerbated by COVID, including ambulances queuing up outside hospitals too overloaded to admit new patients. They condemned the government’s insistence that vaccines have broken the link between infections and hospitalizations. Although vaccines dramatically reduce the chances of serious illness and death, they have not made a significant dent in transmission. “The government must stop pandering to the public and be honest about the threat the pandemic continues to pose to them and the NHS,” the editors wrote. The WHO published its autumn strategy on COVID-19 on Tuesday. The UN health agency called for a second booster dose of vaccine for anyone aged 5 and over with a weak immune system, promoting mask use indoors and on public transport and better ventilation in schools, offices and other places. Kluge said countries in the southern hemisphere are currently experiencing a very active flu season that, combined with COVID, has been straining health systems. “We are likely to see a similar scenario in the northern hemisphere,” Kluge said, warning that increased pressure could lead to business, travel and school disruption. He urged people to make their own decisions, even in countries where authorities have largely abandoned coronavirus restrictions. “We all know the tools we have to keep ourselves safe, assess the level of risk and take the necessary steps to protect others if we become infected,” Kluge said. “Just because the mask is not mandatory does not mean it is prohibited.”
