As Covid cases decline in parts of Europe, a WHO official has said the continent could be moving “towards a kind of pandemic endgame”.
Hans Kluge made the comment to AFP in an interview published on Sunday. Kluge noted that Omicron could infect 60 per cent of Europeans by March.
Kluge told AFP once the current Omicron surge 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.”
Another European official explained vaccines could be adapted to new variants that could emerge.
Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for Internal Markets, oversees vaccine production. He told French TV channel LCI “We will be able to better resist, including to new variants... We will be ready to adapt the vaccines, especially the mRNA ones, if necessary to adapt them to more virulent variants,” AFP reported.
Fauci optimistic
Officials in Europe were not the only ones feeling confident about the trajectory of the pandemic. Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the US president, told ABC News on Sunday that he was “as confident as you can be” about Omicron cases peaking in most US states by mid-February.
Fauci told ABC News “You never want to be overconfident when you're dealing with this virus... Things are looking good. We don't want to get overconfident, but they look like they're going in the right direction right now.”
Fauci noted cases were still rising in southern and western states, but added that cases had peaked and declined “rather sharply” in states in the northeast and upper midwest.
However, Fauci reiterated the importance of vaccines. “There may be a bit more pain and suffering with hospitalisations in those areas of the country that have not been fully vaccinated or have not gotten boosters,” Fauci told ABC News. Fauci noted the “hope” for managing COVID was that the level of infections would be below the “area of control”.
“Control means you're not eliminating it, you're not eradicating it, but it gets down to such a low level, that it's essentially integrated into the general respiratory infections that we have learned to live with,” Fauci told ABC News.
