Copenhagen, Denmark:
Progress against the coronavirus pandemic remains “fragile” and international travel must be avoided, the World Health Organization’s Europe director warned on Thursday, but stressed that authorised vaccines do work against variants of concern.
“Right now, in the face of a continued threat and new uncertainty, we need to continue to exercise caution, and rethink or avoid international travel,” Hans Kluge mentioned, adding that “pockets of increasing transmission” on the continent could promptly spread.
The so-known as India-dominant variant, which might be more transmissible, has now been identified in at least 26 of the 53 nations in the WHO Europe area, Kluge mentioned for the duration of his weekly press conference.
But he mentioned that authorised vaccines are efficient against the new strain.
“All Covid-19 virus variants that have emerged so far do respond to the available, approved vaccines,” Kluge mentioned, adding that all Covid-19 variants can be controlled with the identical public overall health and social measures utilized till now.
So far only 23 % of persons in the area have received a vaccine dose, with just 11 % getting had each doses, Kluge mentioned, as he warned citizens to continue to workout caution.
“Vaccines may be a light at the end of the tunnel, but we cannot be blinded by that light,” he mentioned.
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