Europe at tipping point with Covid running rampant, says WHO

by admin 12.01.2021

12.01.2021

Europe at tipping point with Covid running rampant, says WHO

Europe is at a tipping point in the course of the pandemic, the World Health Organization has said, warning that the coronavirus is spreading very fast across the continent and the arrival of a new variant has created an “alarming situation”.

Hans Kluge, the WHO’s Europe director, said that while the arrival of vaccines offered “new tools” to fight the virus, almost half the 53 countries in the region were reporting a seven-day incidence rate of more than 150 new cases per 100,000 people, while a quarter had recorded a more than 10% surge in cases over the past week.

Kluge said countries rolling out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine could be flexible on the gap between first and second doses, saying a balance should be struck between making the most of limited supplies and protecting as many people as possible.

Some countries including Britain are seeking to counter low vaccine supplies by extending the gap between first and second doses to up to 12 weeks, and by considering lower volume doses of some shots.

Proposals to prolong the gap between first and second dose have generated fierce debate among scientists, with both Pfizer and BioNTech warning that they have no evidence their vaccine would continue to be protective if the second dose was given more than 21 days after the first.

Siddhartha Datta, of the WHO’s vaccine-preventable diseases and immunisation unit, said the organisation acknowledged that some countries would face “exceptional circumstances”, but those choosing to prioritise first doses were “strongly recommended … to look into robust evidence” of the consequences.

The European region recorded more than 580,000 deaths from Covid in 2020, while the 27 countries in the EuroMOMO excess mortality monitoring project reported a threefold increase in excess deaths compared with 2018 and a fivefold increase over 2019.

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