More than half of Europeans affected by Omicron within two months, WHO warns

More than half of Europeans could be affected by the Omicron variant within two months in view of the current “tidal wave”, estimated Tuesday the World Health Organization (WHO), two years to the day after the announcement of the first death officially linked to the coronavirus in China.

The pandemic continues its meteoric progression across the planet, at the rate of 2.5 million additional daily cases over the past seven days, according to an AFP count.

In this context, governments are again faced with the delicate choice between sanitary restrictions and preservation of the economy and the functioning of society in general.

Especially since global growth will slow down this year and that a worst-case scenario is not excluded under the effect of Omicron, which is spreading like wildfire on all continents, accentuating the shortage of manpower and logistical problems, warned the World Bank on Tuesday.

– Europe on the front line –

The Europe region is the one which currently registers the most cases in the world, 7,942,397 in the last seven days (45% of the world total), followed by the United States / Canada zone (5,632,321 cases, 32% ).

“At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) predicts that more than 50% of the region’s population will be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks,” warned the director of WHO Europe. , Hans Kluge, during a press conference.

For him, this highly contagious variant of Covid-19 has mutations “allowing it to adhere more easily to human cells and can even infect people who have been previously infected or vaccinated”.

Poland, whose population is one of the least vaccinated in Europe, exceeded 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday, according to the authorities.

The pandemic is also accelerating very strongly in Latin America and the Caribbean, where we are approaching 50 million cases.

The coronavirus has killed nearly 5.5 million people, according to a toll compiled by AFP from official sources, which could actually be two to three times higher, according to the WHO.

– Chinese mega-cities confined –

The first cases were detected at the end of 2019 in China and, on January 11, 2020, Beijing announced the first officially recorded death of atypical pneumonia, later called Covid-19, in the city of Wuhan (center).

Faced with an increase in the outbreaks of this disease, China, which largely contained the epidemic in early 2020, has once again confined several of its mega-cities.

The latest, Anyang, in central Henan province, on Monday evening ordered its five million residents to stay at home, banned the circulation of private vehicles, closed non-essential businesses and began a general screening campaign. because of Omicron.

Authorities are on the alert ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics (February 4 to 20).

Hong Kong has also stepped up its measures: nurseries and primary schools are closed until early February.

Neighboring Japan extended Tuesday, until the end of February, the entry ban for most foreign nationals on its soil and will reopen mass vaccination centers.

– Never seen –

WHO experts estimated on Tuesday that fighting the Covid-19 pandemic with booster doses of current vaccines is not a viable strategy, also calling for vaccines that better prevent transmission.

A little more than six weeks after the identification of Omicron in South Africa, data from several countries converge on two points: this variant is transmitted much faster than the previously dominant one, Delta, and seems overall to cause less serious forms. of disease.

Omicron is progressing dramatically in many countries and the number of cases is doubling every two or three days, unheard of with previous variants. WHO experts are calling for changes in the composition of vaccines to make sure they protect more against the disease.

French scientific authorities said on Tuesday that they were studying the hypothesis of a fourth dose of the Covid vaccine for the elderly, even if this question is “premature” for the time being, according to the Ministry of Health.

The Israeli government for its part has already given the green light to a 4th dose for vulnerable people.

At the same time, there is deep skepticism and opposition – sometimes fierce – to vaccines in many countries.

This was illustrated last week, when Australia canceled the visa of unvaccinated Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic. He won a lawsuit on Monday against the Australian government.

As for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he risks being targeted by a police investigation into a garden party in Downing Street in May 2020 which brought together a hundred people, in full confinement.

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