Half of western Europe may be infected with Covid in coming weeks, says WHO

There were more than seven million new cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 across Europe in the first week of January, more than doubling in two weeks, the World Health Organisation has said.

WHO Europe director Dr Hans Kluge said on Tuesday that 26 countries in its region reported that more than 1 per cent of their populations are being infected with Covid-19 each week, warning there is a "closing window of opportunity" for countries to prevent their health systems from being overwhelmed.

He cited estimates from the Institute of Health Metrics at the University of Washington that projected half of the population in western Europe will be infected with Covid-19 in the next six to eight weeks.

“Omicron moves faster and wider than any [previous] variant we have seen,” he said.

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Dr Kluge called for countries to mandate the use of masks indoors and to prioritise vaccination, including booster doses, of at-risk populations, including health workers and older people.

The WHO’s Geneva headquarters has previously pleaded with rich countries not to offer booster doses and to donate them instead to poorer countries where vulnerable groups have yet to be immunised.

Dr Kluge said he was greatly concerned that as Omicron moves east across Europe, the variant will take a much higher toll on countries with lower vaccination rates.

In Denmark, he noted the hospital admission rate was six times higher in people who were not vaccinated compared with those who had been immunised.

Poland

Meanwhile on Tuesday, it was reported that Poland’s death toll from coronavirus-related conditions has surpassed 100,000, as vaccine hesitancy and a reluctance to abide by Covid-19 restrictions fuelled a surge in infections, officials and doctors said.

The number of deaths per one million inhabitants was last week among the highest in the world, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford, at more than 57 compared to around 35 in the United States and 37 in Russia.

“Today we can say it is another sad day, but especially so because we have passed the level of 100,000 Covid deaths,” health minister Adam Niedzielski told private broadcaster TVN 24.

With 55.8 per cent of the population fully vaccinated compared to 68.7 per cent for the European Union as a whole, the country has one of the lowest rates of double-jabbed citizens in the bloc.

Vaccine hesitancy has been particularly pronounced in central and eastern Europe, with some experts attributing it to decades of Communist rule that eroded public trust in state institutions and left healthcare systems underdeveloped.

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, meanwhile, has been less willing than some other European countries to introduce strict rules to contain the spread of the virus.

“Poland is the country with relatively the lowest willingness to get vaccinated in Europe, and this was evident from flu vaccinations,” Mr Niedzielski said.

Konstanty Szuldrzynski, a doctor and government adviser, told Reuters that low vaccination rates were only a part of the problem, with poor healthcare resources further exacerbating the situation.

Existing restrictions were not being implemented strictly enough, he added.

“We don’t use Covid certificates, and the restrictions that we do have are executed poorly. People do not cover their mouth and nose, gather in big crowds in public spaces and closed rooms,” he said.

Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Tuesday that tougher vaccine passport requirements were being discussed.

The country has been grappling with a consistently high number of daily Covid-19 cases. Although it has not reported a rise in cases caused by the Omicron variant of the virus, it imposed new restrictions in December.

As of Monday, the health ministry estimates that the Omicron variant accounted for between 7 per cent and 8 per cent of new daily cases.

Poland reported around 11,406 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday and 493 deaths related to the disease. It reported 794 Covid-related deaths in one day in late December, while the highest daily toll during the pandemic is 954, in April last year. – AP/Reuters