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Europe could be headed for pandemic 'endgame': WHO

Md. Shakil Sarder

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The Omicron variant has moved the COVID pandemic into a new phase and could bring it to an end in Europe, the WHO Europe director said on Sunday.

Hans Kluge told AFP in an interview that Omicron could infect 60 percent of Europeans by March. Once the current surge of Omicron currently sweeping across Europe 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."

The Omicron variant has raised long-awaited hopes that Covid-19 is starting to shift from a pandemic to a more manageable endemic illness like seasonal flu. In the WHO Europe region, which comprises 53 countries including several in Central Asia, Omicron represented 15 percent of new cases as of January 18, compared to 6.3 percent a week earlier.

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