European nations should ensure that they ease their coronavirus-related lockdowns cautiously and with restraint, the head of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Europe office, Hans Kluge, said Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2021) European nations should ensure that they ease their coronavirus-related lockdowns cautiously and with restraint, the head of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Europe office, Hans Kluge, said Thursday.
Many countries on the continent introduced strict lockdowns in December and January as part of efforts to combat a surge in new COVID-19 cases linked to the spread of highly infectious variants of the disease that emerged in countries such as the United Kingdom and South Africa.
At a WHO press briefing, Kluge urged European countries not to ease social distancing measures prematurely and promptly.
"Locking down and opening up rapidly is a poor strategy. The introduction and gradual lifting of measures based on epidemiological criteria remains our best option to allow economies to survive and minimize collateral effects. Our approach must be measured; it must be restrained," Kluge remarked.
The WHO official noted that the UK variant of COVID-19 has been identified in 33 countries in the European region. The South African strain has been reported in 16 European nations, Kluge added.
The spread of new COVID-19 variants has raised fears over the efficacy of already-developed vaccines against the disease. Public health officials in many countries have said that there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that the new strains will undermine ongoing mass immunization campaigns.
