WHO warns of 'real threat' of COVID-19 resurgence in Europe and Central Asia

As many as 53 countries across Europe and Central Asia face “real threat” of COVID resurgence in coming weeks or are already experiencing a new wave of infections, the head of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) regional office said on Thursday. Despite running largely successful vaccination campaigns, these regions, as per Dr Hans Kluge, are beginning to witness coronavirus cases similar to those at the peak of the pandemic. While addressing media reporters at WHO headquarters in Denmark, he also emphasised the high transmission rate of the infection saying that it has now become a matter of “grave concern”.

“We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence”, he said, adding "We must change our tactics, from reacting to surges of Covid-19, to preventing them from happening in the first place."

Kluge particularly spoke about the rapid surge of infections across the European continent. “Europe is back at the epicentre of the pandemic, where we were one year ago," he said adding that the only difference now was that experts knew about the virus and had better methods to combat it. According to the latest tally by WHO, Europe has reported a total of 77,857,280 cases till now and is the only region with a surging COVID caseload.

Varied vaccinations 

Meanwhile, health experts also said that all countries in the region were at “varying stages of vaccination rollout”. While many European counties are now moving towards the usage of booster shots, some Central Asian countries including Russia are still battling vaccine scepticism. Out of the 53 countries, which made up Europe and Centra Asa, only 70% had all their populations inoculated, as per WHO. 

Meanwhile, a World Health Organisation (WHO) team recently had a crucial meeting with their Chinese counterparts, discussing the need for transparency in the ongoing investigation to find the origin of the COVID virus, informed WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. At the meeting, the leaders also discussed the importance of increasing global access to Coronavirus vaccines and the measures that are to be taken to avert another such pandemic. 

(Image: AP)