Europe has to “face” a “worrying situation” over the release of a new, more contagious coronavirus mutation, originally found in the UK, warned the director of the World Health Organization's European division.
“The key measures we all know need to be stepped up to reduce transmission, alleviate Covid-19 health services and save lives,” said Hans Klugge, director of the World Health Organization's European Division. Press.
It is important to generalize the use of masks, to limit social gatherings, to observe social distancing and hand washing, and to combine all these measures with effective diagnostic and tracking systems and the isolation of patients, Hans Kluge summed up.
According to WHO estimates, the new executive “could gradually replace the others in circulation in Europe, as has been observed in the United Kingdom and increasingly in Denmark”.
Twenty-two countries in the European zone, including 53 countries, including Russia, have now reported cases linked to the new executive, the WHO said.
The British mutation (“VOC 202012/01”) does not change the nature of the disease:
“Covid-19 is neither more nor less serious” and “children do not appear to be more exposed,” said Hans Klugge, adding that the first evidence showed that the vaccines were also effective against the mutation.
However, the fact that the mutation is highly contagious threatens to increase the number of cases and burden health systems, the WHO warns.
“It is a worrying situation, which means that during a short period of time we will have to do more than we have done and strengthen public health and social distancing measures to flatten the curves that have been launched in many countries.” said Hans Klüge.
Europe has recorded more than 27.6 million cases and 603,000 deaths, according to WHO figures.
