The Omicron variant has moved the Covid-19 pandemic into a new phase and could bring it to an end in Europe, the WHO Europe director said Sunday. "It's plausible that the region is moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame," Hans Kluge told news agency AFP in an interview, adding that Omicron could infect 60 percent of Europeans by March.
"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," AFP quoted WHO Europe Chief Hans Kluge as saying.
WHO also said that Omicron is soon set to replace Delta globally as a result of its immunity evading potential. It stated that Omicron has been found to have a significant growth advantage, higher secondary attack rates, and a higher observed reproduction number compared to Delta.
The number of new coronavirus cases globally rose by 20 percent last week to more than 18 million, marking a slowdown in the surge caused by the omicron variant's spread, according to the World Health Organisation.
In its weekly report on the pandemic, the UN health agency said the number of new COVID-19 infections increased in every world region except for Africa, where cases fell by nearly a third. The number of deaths globally remained similar to the previous week, at about 45,000.
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