He described it as a given appearance of a new variant of the coronavirus the Europe director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Hans Klügetalking to meridian news bulletin of and to Eva Antonopoulou.
Dr. Kluge stressed the appearance of a new mutation should not be a cause for concern as long as people continue to do the right thing, with particular reference to, among other things, protecting vulnerable groups but also restoring restrictive measures if deemed necessary.
The WHO director for Europe also spoke of a calm summer, but not as he said in the event that countries go from “everything” to “nothing”.
The interview of Hans Kluge in detail
-Dr. Hans Kluge Thank you for being with us from the Greek offices of the World Health Organization in Athens
HANS KLUGE
My pleasure!
With regard to the coronavirus pandemic, we are seeing an 8% increase in new weekly infections worldwide. What should we expect in the near future? A new wave? And I ask this because most of us act as if the pandemic is over.
HANS KLUGE
-We are actually in 18 of the 53 countries, in the wider region of Europe, where we observe a increase. However, there is a difference here. In countries with a high rate of vaccination, we observe that hospitalizations although deaths do not increase. This is more the case in countries with lower vaccination rates. This is due, firstly, to the fact that in a number of countries the BA.2 (Omicron 2) variant is displaced by the BA.1 (Omicron 1) and, in addition, because many countries abruptly lift restrictions. Therefore, countries need to relax the measures much more gently and gradually.
-We should expect a new variant of Dr. Klouge?
HANS KLUGE
-A new variation will certainly appear, but this does not mean that it should disturb our lives, if we do the right thing. All countries must do four things.
First, protect them vulnerable groups, mainly the elderly and citizens with underlying diseases, because they are more at risk of death.
Second, countries need to step up monitoring systems so that each country can detect each variant very directly and can control it.
Third, countries need to be prepared to restore public health measures if required.
And fourth, there is increased access to antiviral drugs, because the best way to fight an infectious disease is by combining a vaccine for prevention and a treatment for treatment.
But do governments agree to end all restrictions on the coronavirus?
HANS KLUGE
It depends on the epidemiological situation, but we have always said that we are optimistic that we will have a calmer summer, but not if the countries go from “all” to “nothing”. They should release the restrictions very gradually. Therefore, relaxing the measures 100% in case there may be a new wave, is not the best strategy. It should be done gradually.
Today, the WHO, Europe is launching a new pan-European program to improve the quality of mental health services for children in 53 countries. The mental health of children suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. But this is not limited to the coronavirus, as we see from the war in Ukraine.
How will the WHO support the children;
HANS KLUGE
Today was a historic day for the region of Europe, together with the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Minister of Health Mr. Plevris and the whole government we launched a new pan-European program for children related to the quality of care. Before the pandemic, suicide was the number four leading cause of death for children aged ten to nineteen. After the pandemic, it became the number one or two cause
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