WHO warns of fresh wave of Omicron in eastern Europe

A new wave of infections from the Omicron variant of coronavirus is moving towards the east of Europe, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

London: A new wave of infections from the Omicron variant of coronavirus is moving towards the east of Europe, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday, urging authorities to improve vaccination and other measures. WHO's Europe regional director Hans Kluge, in a statement, said that the past two weeks, cases of Covid have more than doubled in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine, reports said.

The comments come at a time when several European countries including Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have all lifted Covid restrictions, while the Czech Republic and Poland have hinted at easing of Covid-19 restrictions next month, if daily infection numbers kept falling. Over 165 million Covid cases and 25,000 deaths have been recorded so far across the WHO European region in the last week.

The global health body stressed the continued need for measures such as rapid testing and masking, as well as avoiding crowded locations, and improving ventilation. Kluge stressed that in the face of an "Omicron tidal wave", and "with Delta still circulating widely in the east", now was "not the moment to lift measures that we know work in reducing the spread of Covid-19".He also called on governments to increase vaccination rates.

Less than 40 per cent of those aged over 60 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan have completed their Covid-19 vaccine series, he said.

IANS