Copenhagen — Greater than half of the folks in Europe are on monitor to contract the Omicron coronavirus variant within the subsequent two months if infections proceed at present charges, the World Well being Group mentioned on Tuesday. Talking at a press convention, regional director Hans Kluge warned that the Omicron variant represented a "new west-to-east tidal wave sweeping throughout" the European area. "At this price, the Institute for Well being Metrics and Analysis (IHME) forecasts that greater than 50% of the inhabitants within the area will likely be contaminated with Omicron within the subsequent six to eight weeks," Kluge informed reporters. The WHO's European area contains 53 international locations and territories together with a number of in Central Asia, and Kluge famous that fifty of them had confirmed circumstances of the Omicron variant. In response to the WHO, 26 of these international locations reported that over 1% of their populations had been "catching COVID-19 every week," as of January 10, and that the area had seen over seven million new virus circumstances reported within the first week of 2022 alone. Referencing knowledge collected over the previous couple of weeks, Kluge mentioned the variant was confirmed to be extra transmissible and "the mutations it has allow it to stick to human cells extra simply, and it could infect even those that have been beforehand contaminated or vaccinated." Nonetheless, Kluge additionally pressured that "accepted vaccines do proceed to offer good safety in opposition to extreme illness and dying, together with for Omicron."
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