Europe to see ‘high levels’ of Covid this summer: WHO

The WHO expects ‘high levels’ of Covid in Europe this summer and called on countries to monitor the spread as cases tripled in the past month.

Covid cases in Europe have tripled in the past month. Picture: Getty Images

The World Health Organisation expects “high levels” of Covid-19 in Europe this summer and called on countries to monitor the spread as cases tripled in the past month.

“As countries across the European region have lifted the social measures that were previously in place, the virus will transmit at high levels over the summer,” WHO Europe regional director Hans Kluge said on Thursday. “This virus won’t go away just because countries stop looking for it. It’s still spreading, it’s still changing, and it’s still taking lives.”

With the milder but more contagious Omicron subvariant BA.5 spreading across the continent, the 53 countries are registering just under 500,000 cases daily. That is up from about 150,000 cases daily at the end of May.

Germany, Austria, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Portugal and Cyprus were the countries with the highest incidence rates.

After registering about 4000 to 5000 deaths a day through most of the winter, Europe is now seeing about 500 deaths a day, about the same level as during the summer of 2020.

AFP