The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that autumn could bring a new wave of Covid-19 to Europe, with an increase in new cases, pressure on hospitalizations and deaths from the disease. One of the culprits is the Indian type: the World Health Organization said there is evidence, albeit early, that this strain Escape the immunity caused by the vaccineEspecially after the first dose.
The fear comes from the fact that, also in the past year, new cases fell, then increased again in October, says Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe.
“We’ve been here before. Last summer, cases gradually increased in younger age groups, then shifted to older age groups, resulting in a devastating loss of life in fall and winter 2020. Let’s not make that mistake again,”
Even having vaccines against Covid-19 is not enough to ease measures, insists Katie Smallwood, who is in charge of emergencies at the organization. The delta variant (originally identified in India) may bring new complications to European countries as it is more transmissible.
“We’ve seen very significant evidence of significantly higher transmissibility, we’ve seen the initial basis for increased risk of hospitalization and we’ve seen some evidence of immune escape, especially after only one dose of the vaccine. Our assessment is that this is a significant risk in terms of community transmission,” he cautioned. .
