Vienna: The top World Health Organization official in Europe on Tuesday asked governments to be prepared for a ‘huge jump’ in coronavirus cases across the continent due to the Omicron variant. Along with this, the WHO has also advised making extensive arrangements for booster doses of the vaccine to avoid the Omicron variant of the corona. The Omicron variant of Corona is rapidly infecting people in countries around the world. More than two hundred cases of Omicron have been reported in India.
WHO’s local director, Dr. Hans Kluge, said at a press conference in Vienna, “We can see another storm coming.” In a few weeks, Omicron will dominate more countries in Europe, said Kluge, which will further affect health systems already going through bad times. Kluge said Omicron has been found in 38 of the 53 European territories so far. It has already dominated in Britain, Denmark, and Portugal.
He said that 27 thousand people died due to coronavirus in the area last week and 26 lakh additional cases have been reported. However, these cases include cases of infection of all formats. He said that this number is 40 percent more than the same period last year. Kluge said, as a result of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, more people may be admitted to hospitals. He has appealed to European countries to give booster doses to their citizens as soon as possible.
He said that now the only way to avoid Omicron is a booster dose of the vaccine. So far, 89 percent of Omicron’s initial cases in Europe were associated with common COVID-19 symptoms such as cough, sore throat, and fever, Kluge said. He said that this variant is attacking more in people in the age group of 20 to 30 years. So far it has been seen that most of the cases have deteriorated where there are more possibilities. He said, in view of the new Covid-19 infection, it is being speculated that this time many people will need to be hospitalized.
