Kyiv.Ukraine.Ukraine Gate- January 11, 2022- In the first week of January, more than 7 million cases of the new strain of coronavirus Omicron were registered in Europe.
Twenty-six countries in the region are reporting more than 1% of their population infected with COVID-19 each week, WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Kluge cited estimates from the University of Washington Institute for Health Indicators that half the population of Western Europe is expected to contract COVID-19 within the next six to eight weeks.
Kluge called on European countries to make wearing masks indoors mandatory and to give priority to vaccination against the Corona virus, including booster doses and groups at risk.
The World Health Organization has previously called on rich countries not to provide booster doses to their populations, but to donate medicines to poor countries where vulnerable groups have not been immunized at all.
