A nurse adjusts her PPE in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South West London, where the number of intensive care beds for critically ill patients had to be increased from 60 to 120, the vast majority of which for coronavirus patients.
Victoria Jones – PA Images | PA images | Getty Images
LONDON – The World Health Organization on Thursday warned of a tipping point in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, amid growing fears of more contagious variants of the virus that have led to a rapid wave of infections.
Countries are struggling to include two variants in the UK and South Africa that are significantly more transferable, with public health experts concerned about the potential impact on vaccination efforts.
Although the variants spread more easily, there is no clear evidence that the mutated viruses are associated with more serious disease outcomes. But being more transmissible means more people can become infected, and this can lead to more serious infections and more fatalities.
In recent weeks, optimism about the massive rollout of Covid-19 vaccines seems to have been tempered by the resurgence of virus spread.
“We were prepared for a challenging start to 2021 and it was,” said Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, in an online press conference.
“This moment represents a turning point in the course of the pandemic where science, politics, technology and values must form a united front to push back this persistent and elusive virus.”
‘We are very much in it’
A year after the health agency’s initial report on Covid-19, Kluge reflected on the fact that the WHO European region saw more than 26 million cases of Covid and more than 580,000 deaths by 2020.
Several countries in Europe have imposed national lockdown measures in recent days, and more are expected to follow in the coming week to ease the pressure on already congested health facilities.
View of an almost deserted city center on December 15, 2020 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Niels Wenstedt | BSR agency | Getty Images News | Getty Images
As of Wednesday, nearly half of all countries and territories in Europe recorded a seven-day incidence of more than 150 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The WHO estimated that more than 25% of them reported “very high” incidence rates and overburdened health systems.
“I have to say we are very much in the middle of it right now. Not only are we in the middle of it, we are probably in the European region in the most acute phase of transmission and we continue to have (a) really big impact on hospital wards,” said Dr. Catherine Smallwood, senior Emergency Officer at WHO Europe, during the online briefing.
“To change that, we really need to reduce transmission and control spread, despite the introduction of vaccinations,” said Smallwood.
The European Commission gave final approval on Wednesday for the use of the Covid vaccine developed by the American company Moderna.
It was the second vaccine approved by the EU executive arm, with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine getting the green light earlier.
The EU, which began its vaccination program on December 27, has been criticized for its slow rollout of injections across the bloc.
It is trying to catch up with Israel and the US, where large numbers of people have already been vaccinated against the virus.
According to WHO data, Europe has recorded 27.5 million confirmed cases of Covid and 603,563 related deaths to date.