The World Health Organisation said Tuesday that coronavirus cases have tripled across Europe in the past six weeks, accounting for nearly half of all infections globally. Hospitalisation rates have also doubled, although intensive care admissions have remained low.
In a statement on Tuesday, WHO's Europe director Dr Hans Kluge described Covid-19 as 바카라a nasty and potentially deadly illness바카라 that people should not underestimate. He said super-infectious relatives of the omicron variant were driving new waves of disease across the continent and that repeat infections could potentially lead to long Covid.
바카라With rising cases we're also seeing a rise in hospitalisations, which are only set to increase further in the autumn and winter months,바카라 Kluge said. 바카라This forecast presents a huge challenge to the health workforce in country after country, already under enormous pressure dealing with unrelenting crises since 2020.바카라
Earlier this week, editors of two British medical journals said that at no other time in the country's National Health Service have so many parts of it been so close to collapse.
Kamran Abbasi, of the BMJ and Alastair McLellan of the Health Service Journal wrote in a joint editorial that the UK government was failing to address persistent problems worsened by Covid, including the queuing of ambulances outside hospitals too overloaded to accept new patients.
They slammed the government's insistence that vaccines have broken the link between infections and hospitalisations. Although vaccines dramatically reduce the chances of severe disease and death, they have not made a significant dent on transmission.
바카라The government must stop gaslighting the public and be honest about the threat the pandemic still poses to them and the National Health Service,바카라 the editors wrote.
In WHO's autumn strategy for Covid-19 released on Tuesday, the UN health agency called for measures including a second booster dose for anyone with weak immune systems aged 5 and over, promoting mask-wearing indoors and on public transportation and better ventilation in places including schools and offices.
He said southern hemisphere countries were currently experiencing a very active flu season that combined with Covid, was straining health systems.
바카라We are likely to see a similar scenario in the northern hemisphere,바카라 Kluge said, warning that increased pressure could lead to business, travel and school chaos.
He urged people to make their own decisions, even in countries where authorities have largely abandoned coronavirus restrictions. 바카라We're all aware of the tools we have to keep ourselves safe, assess our level of risk and take the necessary steps to protect others if we get infected,바카라 Kluge said. 바카라Just because a mask isn't mandated doesn't mean it's prohibited.바카라
