According to WHO, coronavirus cases have tripled across Europe in the past six weeks, accounting for nearly half of all infections globally, while hospitalization rates have also doubled.
In a statement on Tuesday, WHO’s Europe director, Dr Hans Kluge, described COVID-19 as “a nasty and potentially deadly illness” that people should not underestimate.
He said super-infectious relatives of the omicron variant are driving new waves of disease across the continent and those repeat infections could potentially lead to long COVID.
He added that despite the increase in hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions have so far remained “relatively low”.