Covid-19: here is why it will be necessary to protect yourself as much as possible this summer

He returns by the front door to Europe. With its BA.5 variant, Omicron is spreading fast like wildfire. The tripling of Covid-19 cases in just one month leaves no illusions as to the resumption of a wave of the epidemic during this summer. The WHO calls on states to raise the level of vaccination.

The World Health Organization (WHO) told AFP on Thursday to expect “high levels” of Covid-19 this summer in Europe and called on to monitor the virus close after a tripling of daily cases for a month. “ As countries across Europe have raised social measures that were in place, the virus will be circulating at high levels over the summer”, said the director for Europe of the UN organization, Hans Kluge. ” The virus is not going away just because countries stop monitoring it. It keeps contaminating, it keeps changing and it still kills “, he said in a written statement to AFP.

Pulled by sub-variant Omicron BA.5, the number of cases in the fifty countries of the WHO Europe zone approached 500,000 daily this week, while it was around 150,000 per day at the end of May, according to public data from the organization. After hovering around 4,000 to 5,000 deaths a day for much ofwinterthe number of deaths currently remains at a low level of around 500, i.e. its level of summer 2020.

Objective: to avoid the most serious consequences

Almost all European countries are showing rising cases, with Portugal, Luxembourg, France, Greece, Cyprus, Germany and Austria currently leading the charge. impact. ” We hope that the extensive vaccination programs that most Member States have in place, as well as past infections, will mean that we will avoid the most serious consequences that we have seen earlier in the pandemicunderlined Mr. Kluge. Nevertheless, our recommendations remain in place “.

The WHO is calling on Europeans to continue self-isolating if they have respiratory symptoms, to check that their vaccination is up to date and to wear a mask in crowded places. ” We must continue to track down the virus because not doing so makes us more and more blind to the ways of transmission and to (its) evolution “, underlined the director of WHO Europe.

Mr. Kluge also called on Member States to further increase their level of vaccination. ” A high immunity in the population and the choices made to reduce the risk for the elderly will be the keys to preventing a additional mortality this summer “, he said.