The World Health Organization (WHO) has urgently called on European governments to strengthen rather than reduce the monitoring of Covid-19. The WHO warned of a potentially difficult winter as a new wave of infections sweeps the continent.
Hans Kluge, the WHO regional director for Europe, said it was "very clear" that the region faced an increase in infections driven by the highly transmissible variants of Omicron BA.2 and BA.5 and that infections could grow more in the autumn season due to staying longer indoors.
Kluge said new cases had tripled over the past six weeks and close to 3 million new infections were confirmed last week. Almost half of all new cases worldwide are in Europe, he said, where hospitalizations due to the virus have also doubled.
Intensive care beds remain relatively low, Kluge said, but as infection rates rise in older populations, almost 3,000 people a week are dying from Covid.
Kluge stressed that vaccination of the general population should be increased, second booster doses should be administered to all at-risk populations and the use of masks on public transport should be promoted.
Most importantly, authorities must continue to monitor and track the evolution of the virus, which remains highly unpredictable, he said. "Most countries in the European region have banned or greatly reduced surveillance."
The WHO statement follows a similar warning from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which said last week that the region was seeing "an increase in the rate of infections and hospitalizations" across Europe. .
