More than half of the European population is expected to be infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the next six to eight weeks, Hans Kluge, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the continent, said on Tuesday.
Europe recorded more than 7 million new Covid-19 cases in the first week of 2022, more than double the number reported a fortnight earlier, Kluge told a press conference.
“At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Assessment predicts that more than 50% of the region’s population will be infected with Ômicron in the next six to eight weeks,” Kluge said.
Despite early studies showing a lower risk of serious illness or hospitalization from Omicron compared to the previously dominant Delta variant, healthcare networks in Spain, Britain, Italy and beyond found themselves in increasingly desperate circumstances.
Britain put its biggest private healthcare companies on high alert on Monday to offer essential treatments, including cancer surgery. The initiative is so that the system does not collapse if there is an absence of staff and unsustainable levels of hospitalizations in health facilities of the National Health Service (NHS) in England.
The country also began sending military personnel to support hospitals on Friday due to the record of COVID-19 cases.
“Omicron means more patients to treat and less staff to treat them,” NHS Chief Medical Officer Stephen Powis said in a statement.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday that it may be time to use different parameters to monitor the rise in Covid-19 cases.
Spanish newspaper El Pais said the government was considering methods similar to those used to track the flu, without such extensive testing and case reporting.
health officials
Spain has seen an increase in infections among nurses and physiotherapists working on the front lines, the Spanish nursing union SATSE said in a statement.
In the Andalusia region, they represented more than 30% of employees on Covid-19-related leave in the second half of December.
In the region alone, around 1,000 workers were infected with the coronavirus in the final weeks of the year, “generating serious problems in service coverage,” the statement said.
In the Netherlands, infection rates are also rising sharply among hospital staff, particularly nurses and nursing assistants, the Dutch daily De Telegraaf reported on Friday, following a survey of eight large hospitals.
In the worst cases, one in four tested positive in the run-up to Christmas, such as at the University of Amsterdam Medical Center, where 25% of staff now test positive, compared with 5% a week ago.
Dutch hospitals are considering changing their quarantine rules so that infected staff who do not show symptoms can come to work, according to a report in De Telegraaf, as daily Dutch case numbers break records despite a strict lockdown since December 19.
In Italy, the problem of infected healthcare workers – more than 12,800 according to data collected last week – is being compounded by the suspension of doctors, nurses and administrative staff who are not vaccinated and represent just over 4% of the total workforce.
In a last-minute attempt to fill gaps in service, Italian health agencies are freezing or postponing employee vacations and freezing or postponing scheduled surgeries not classified as “urgent.”
With information from Guy Faulconbridge and Alistair Smout of Reuters
Reference: CNN Brasil
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