WHO Europe urges stronger action to contain new virus strain

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(File photo) A photo taken in the late hours of August 17, 2020 shows a sign of the World Health Organization (WHO) at their headquarters in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the novel coronavirus. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

 

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — The World Health Organization is calling on its members in Europe to step up measures against coronavirus in the face of the new variant circulating in Britain, its European branch said Sunday.

Outside Britain, nine cases of the new strain have been reported in Denmark, as well as one case in the Netherlands and another in Australia, according to the WHO.

“Across Europe, where transmission is intense and widespread, countries need to redouble their control and prevention approaches,” a spokeswoman for WHO Europe told AFP.

The UN agency urged its members worldwide to “increase the sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 viruses where possible and sharing of sequence data internationally, in particular, to report if the same mutations of concern are found,” she said.

Several European countries decided Sunday to suspend all flights from Britain after the discovery of the new strain which London said was “out of control”.

(FILES) This file photo taken on October 27, 2017 shows a British Airways airplane waiting on the runway with the towers and buildings of London’s Canary Wharf financial district in background before taking off at London City Airport in London. – Germany is considering banning flights from Britain and South Africa to prevent the spread of new, more infectious coronavirus strain circulating in the two countries, a source close to the German health ministry told AFP on Sunday, December 20, 2020. (Photo by Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP)
An arrangement of UK daily newspapers photographed as an illustration in Liverpool on December 20, 2020, shows front page headlines reporting on the story of Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson introducing new tougher coronavirus COVID-19 restrictions for London and the South East of England, cancelling Christmas gatherings for those in the new ‘tier 4’ category. – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday announced a “stay at home” order for London and southeast England to slow a new coronavirus strain that is significantly more infectious. He ordered new restrictions for London and south-eastern England from Sunday, saying that “residents in those areas must stay at home” at least until December 30. The measures will mean around a third of England’s population cannot travel or meet other households for Christmas. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)

The WHO noted “preliminary signs that the variant may be able to spread more easily between people” and “preliminary information that the variant may affect (the) performance of some diagnostic assays (tests).”

It said it had “no evidence to indicate any change in disease severity, but this is also under investigation.”

Last week, Europe has become the first region in the world to pass 500,000 deaths from Covid-19 since the pandemic broke out a year ago, killing more than 1.6 million worldwide and pitching the global economy into turmoil.

Countries are shutting down their economies with restrictions again in a bid to rein in the virus.


© Agence France-Presse