Several European countries lifted their coronavirus restrictions too soon, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, and as a result are now witnessing sharp rises in infections probably linked to the new, more transmissible BA2 subvariant.
Hans Kluge, director of the WHO’s Europe region, said countries including Germany, France, Italy and Britain had lifted their Covid curbs “brutally – from too much to too few”. Infections are rising in 18 out of the region’s 53 countries, he said.
Kluge told journalists in Moldova on Tuesday that more than 5.1 million new cases – often linked to the BA2 variant, which experts say is about 30% more contagious – and 12,496 deaths have been reported in the region over the past seven days.
“The countries where we see a particular increase are the United Kingdom, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, France, Italy and Germany,” he said, adding that he nonetheless remained “optimistic but vigilant” about the pandemic’s progress in Europe.
Health experts have said the surge is probably due to a range of factors including the reduced immunity offered by vaccines over time, the relatively high transmission rate of Omicron and its BA2 subvariant, and the relaxing of curbs such as mask wearing and vaccine passes for access to many indoor public places.
WHO data shows the number of new Covid cases in Europe fell sharply from a peak at the end of January, but has been rising again since early March. In some countries, infection numbers are reaching new records even as most curbs are being lifted.
Most pandemic controls were lifted in Germany’s “Freedom Day” on Sunday despite the seven-day rolling average of new daily cases per million hitting 2,619 on Saturday, the highest since the start of the pandemic more than two years ago. “The situation is much worse than the mood,” the health minister, Karl Lauterbach, warned.
Austria last week reimposed the use of FFP2 masks indoors from Wednesday with its seven-day average per million standing at a record 4,985. The country’s health minister, Johannes Rauch, admitted the country had eased most restrictions too early, on 5 March.
“A decline in the current figures is not expected until after the next few weeks,” the ministry said, regretting that that “the tense situation” would therefore be likely to last “much longer than previously expected”.
Controls in France – including the requirement to wear masks in most indoor settings and a vaccine pass to access cafes, cinemas and restaurants – were lifted early last week, but its daily average per million has surged to 1,331 from 774 on 5 March.
French authorities have said that for the time being the situation in the country’s hospitals was manageable, while the number of patients in intensive care and the number of daily coronavirus fatalities were going down.
“For the past few days the number of people being admitted to hospital each day has stopped falling,” France’s health minister, Olivier Véran, acknowledged, adding that he expected to see the number of new infections “continue to rise until about the end of March, before falling back again in April”.
Véran said there no “alarming signals” had so far been observed in intensive care wards in France. “The greatest risk is for people with underlying conditions and those who have not been fully vaccinated,” he said. “We are strongly advising them to continue wearing masks and to get their booster shot as soon as possible.”
Italy announced last week that people would no longer have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter indoor public spaces from 1 May, with outdoor venues exempt after 1 April and masks no longer required indoors from 30 April.
The country’s seven-day average of new cases has, however, almost doubled since early March to 1,156 per million inhabitants. The equivalent figure in the UK has risen even more dramatically, from 398 at the end of February to 1,189 this weekend.
Despite the rise in new infections, Kluge said Europe was in a relatively good position to cope with the virus. “There is a very large capital of immunity … either thanks to the vaccination or due to the infection,” he said, while the end of winter meant people would be less likely to gather in “small, crowded places”.
Moreover, Omicron and its subvariant are known to cause milder symptoms in people who are fully vaccinated and have had a booster shot, he added – although he warned that in countries with a low vaccination rate, “this is still a disease that kills”.
Kluge said the world would have to live with Covid “for quite a time, but that does not mean that we cannot get rid of the pandemic”. To be able to do so, he said, countries must protect vulnerable people, strengthen surveillance and sequencing, and make sure they had access to new antiviral medicines.