Despite the drop in positive cases of Covid-19 in Europe, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) stressed on Tuesday that the pandemic is not over and countries in the region must prepare for a new wave.
“Data has shown that in recent weeks the total number of cases and deaths from Covid-19 has decreased in Europe,” said EMA’s Head of Health Threats and Vaccines Strategy Marco Cavaleri.
However, he noted that “as autumn approaches, we need to prepare for a new wave of infections” as this scenario has occurred over the past two years and may repeat itself.
Cavaleri pointed out that some variants of the coronavirus can spread more than others, although he acknowledged that the predominant one in Europe is the omicron BA.5.
“The BA.5 Omicron variant is still the dominant variant circulating in Europe,” said the expert, adding, “we still have to look out for other variants. For example, BA.4.6 is spreading rapidly in the United States. United States and has already been proven in Europe. Also, the BA.2.75 is a worrying variant,” he said.
For his part, EMA Medical Director Steffen Thirstrup claimed that “from the presentation by Dr. It should be clear to Cavaleri that we in Europe still assume that the pandemic will continue.”
A total of 612,841,202 positives for Covid-19 disease and 6,529,244 deaths have been confirmed worldwide since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.