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GENEVA: Europe needs a “serious acceleration” in the fight against the coronavirus and a lack of contact tracing capacity could drive the disease into obscurity, said a senior official at the World Health Organization on Monday (October 26) .
In Europe, the outlook is relentlessly bleak as a number of countries reported record increases, led by France, which recorded more than 50,000 daily cases for the first time on Sunday, while the continent passed the 250,000 death threshold.
The vast region, comprising 46 WHO countries, accounted for 46 percent of global cases and nearly a third of deaths, said Mike Ryan, WHO’s leading emergency expert.
READ: Europe braces for more pain ahead as COVID-19 rises
“At the moment we are far behind this virus in Europe, so getting ahead of it will require a major acceleration in what we do,” Ryan told a news conference.
The clinical capacity to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients has increased in Europe and mortality rates are “very, very low,” Ryan said, paying tribute to healthcare systems and medical workers.
“But we are seeing a large number of cases, we are seeing widespread disease, we are seeing very very high positivity rates and a growing lack of ability to perform any effective form of contact tracing that will further drive the disease into obscurity,” he said .
“And many countries are now facing the specter of closures in the coming weeks. It is not a situation that I am sure any country in Europe or the world would want to be in,” he added.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical director for COVID-19, said: “We are still hopeful that countries do not have to enter these so-called national lockdowns.”
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that during the first wave, Italy and Spain “took serious measures to protect the vulnerable but at the same time reduce transmission,” adding: “The combination of this is very important. “.
Tedros said governments and citizens must do their part and must “do everything possible to minimize transmission.”
“And that is why we are saying, although we agree with the chief of staff (Meadows), that protecting the vulnerable is important, but giving up control is dangerous,” he said.
He was referring to comments White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows made to CNN on Sunday when he said: “We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we receive vaccines, therapies and other forms of mitigation”. areas “.
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