‘Don’t think the pandemic is over’

WHO Europe director: Contagiousness of new variants a main concern

COPENHAGEN: The World Health Organisation’s regional director for Europe warned that the Covid-19 pandemic will not end until at least 70% of people are vaccinated, and criticised Europe’s vaccine rollout as “too slow”.

“Don’t think the pandemic is over,” Hans Kluge said in an interview, adding that vaccination rates needed to increase.

“The pandemic will be over once we reach 70% minimum coverage in vaccination,” he said.

In the 53 countries and territories that make up the organisation’s European region – including several in Central Asia – 26% of the population has received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

In the European Union, 36.6% of the population has received at least one dose and 16.9% are fully vaccinated, according to a count by AFP.

Kluge said one of his main concerns was the increased contagiousness of new variants.

“We know, for example, that the

B.1617 (Indian variant) is more transmissible than the B.117 (UK variant), which already was more transmissible than the previous strain,” Kluge noted.

Cases of the so-called Indian variant have been recorded in 27 of the region’s 53 countries, while new cases and deaths have fallen for five consecutive weeks.

Worldwide, new cases have dropped for four weeks in a row, according to an AFP tally.

While vaccines have proven effective against coronavirus mutations, people must still be vigilant, Kluge emphasised, adding that a major concern was that “people become complacent”, especially going into the summer months.

Also, large gatherings are on the horizon, in conjunction with the European football championship.

“Let’s finally give Covid-19 the red card, don’t allow extra time for Covid-19,” Kluge quipped.

He underscored that speed is “of essence” during the pandemic. “Our best friend is speed, time is working against us. The vaccination rollout is still too slow,” he said.

“We need to accelerate, we need to enlarge the number of vaccines, and European countries need to show more solidarity.

“It’s not acceptable that some countries start to vaccinate the younger, healthy part of the population, while other countries in our region still did not cover all healthcare workers and the most vulnerable people,” he added.