Europe could be headed for Covid-19 pandemic ‘endgame’: WHO
- World Health Organization Europe official talks about longer-term scenarios for Covid-19 as pandemic enters third year
- Omicron has raised hopes that Covid-19 is shifting from a pandemic to a more manageable endemic illness
The Omicron variant has moved the Covid-19 pandemic into a new phase and could bring it to an end in Europe, the World Health Organization Europe director said on Sunday.
“It’s plausible that the region is moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame,” Hans Kluge told Agence France-Presse in an interview, adding that Omicron could infect 60 per cent of Europeans by March.
Once the current surge of Omicron currently sweeping across Europe subsides, “there will be for quite some weeks and months a global immunity, either thanks to the vaccine or because people have immunity due to the infection, and also lowering seasonality”.
“We anticipate that there will be a period of quiet before Covid-19 may come back towards the end of the year, but not necessarily the pandemic coming back,” Kluge said.
Top US scientist Anthony Fauci expressed similar optimism on Sunday.
He told ABC News talk show This Week that with Covid-19 cases coming down “rather sharply” in parts of the United States, “things are looking good”.
While cautioning against over confidence, he said that if the recent fall in case numbers in areas like the US’s northeast continues “I believe that you will start to see a turnaround throughout the entire country”.