Europe might be seeing the end of the covid-19 emergency. A statement released yesterday by the World Health Organization (WHO) expresses cautious optimism, two years since the first cases of covid-19 were identified in France.
Omicron could be good news in disguise, according to the WHO, because while it is causing surges in cases worldwide, it comes with lower hospitalization and death rates, particularly for vaccinated individuals. About a third of all covid-19 cases in Europe are now of the omicron variant, and the percentage keeps increasing, suggesting that it will soon outpace the more severe delta variant, as happened in the US.
The spread of the virus is causing high numbers of hospitalization, but fewer patients require intensive care, or ventilators, making the new variants more manageable for healthcare systems too.
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Originally published on Quartz : Original article