The director of the World Health Organization says the Covid pandemic is at ‘end game’ in Europe

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The global health official said the Covid pandemic may be entering its “end” in Europe.

Hans Kluge, Director of the World Health Organization in Europe, expressed optimism that the world will soon reach global immunity due to the introduction of a vaccine and infection with the virus.

He added that Omicron could infect 60 per cent of Europeans by March, but warned that cases could rise again by the end of the year.

“It is plausible that the region is heading towards the end of the pandemic’s thin game,” he told AFP.

“There will be for some weeks and months global immunity, either thanks to the vaccine or because people have immunity to infection, as well as reduced seasonality.

“We expect there will be a period of calm before Covid-19 returns at the end of the year, but not necessarily a return of the epidemic again.”

Studies have shown the Omicron variant is more contagious than Delta, but leads to less severe infection among vaccinated people, raising hopes that Covid-19 is beginning to transition into a controllable endemic disease like seasonal flu.

However, Kluge cautioned that it was still too early to consider Covid-19 endemic and that other variants could emerge.

“There is a lot of talk about endemic but endemic means … that it is possible to predict what will happen. This virus has surprised us more than once so we have to be very careful.”

Another World Health Organization expert warned on Monday that Covid should not be likened to the flu, after ministers said the UK would have to live with the coronavirus as it does with the flu.

Dr David Nabarro, WHO’s special envoy to Covid, said that “the end was in sight” but that Europe was “beyond the halfway mark in a marathon”.

Asked about the observations that Covid-19 should be treated like the flu, he told Sky News: “I still wonder what the people who made these amazing predictions that I and my colleagues at the World Health Organization do not know.

“You see, what people from all over the world are seeing and reporting to the World Health Organization is still a very dangerous virus, especially for people who have not been vaccinated and who have not been exposed to it before.

“It can also evolve and form variables and we’ve seen many of them but we know there aren’t many that are far away.

“So, quite frankly, we’re not saying this should be considered like the flu or actually like anything else.

“It’s a new virus, and we must continue to treat it like it’s full of surprises, very disgusting and somewhat cunning.”

The warning comes after the UK government announced that all restrictions of Plan B Covid will be lifted on January 26, including the mandatory wearing of masks on public transport and in shops, directives to work from home and vaccination certificates.

Anthony Fauci, the US president’s chief medical advisor, also expressed similar sentiments about the development of the pandemic in the United States.

Speaking to the ABC News talk show this week, he said cases of Covid are declining “fairly sharply” in parts of the United States and that “things are looking good.”

If the recent decline in cases continues in areas like the northeastern United States, “I think you’re going to start to see a shift across the whole country.”

The World Health Organization’s Africa regional office also said last week that COVID-19 cases have fallen dramatically on the continent, and deaths are falling for the first time since the fourth wave of the Omicron-dominated virus reached its peak.

The European Commissioner for Internal Markets, Thierry Breton, said existing vaccines could be adapted to any new variants that might emerge.

“We will be ready to adapt vaccines, especially mRNA vaccines, if necessary to adapt them to more virulent variants,” he told the French news LCI.

In the WHO’s Europe region, which includes 53 countries including several Central Asian countries, Omicron accounted for 15 percent of new cases as of January 18, compared to 6.3 percent the previous week, the health authority said.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said last week that Omicron is now the dominant alternative in the European Union and European Economic Area (EEA).

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