The backdrop is that many have been vaccinated, the omicron variant is very mild, and the cold winter weather is coming to an end.

– This relationship, which we haven’t seen in a pandemic so far, gives us a chance to calm down for a long timesaid WHO Europe Director Hans Kluge at a press conference on Thursday.

– This period of high protection should be seen as a “truce” that can also give us lasting peace, he said.

Although new virus variants may emerge, health authorities in Europe should be able to deal with them, administer the necessary vaccinations and implement other necessary measures, Kluge believes.

However, this presupposes “a drastic and uncompromising increase in vaccine distribution across national borders”, also outside Europe, he stressed.

Researchers have long shown that a new and far more dangerous variant of the coronavirus could come if the majority of the world’s population is not vaccinated, which is far from being the case today.

In many low-income countries, vaccination is just getting started, while in richer countries it is now being considered whether to start giving a fourth dose.

Last week, about 12 million new cases of infection were detected in Europe, the most during the pandemic. This is due to the omicron variant which has been shown to be more contagious, but at the same time causes less serious disease.

Therefore, the infection record did not result in a sharp increase in the number of hospital admissions and deaths in Europe, Kluge points out.