Europe facing new wave of coronavirus triggered by highly contagious Omicron sub-variants
It would seem that the coronavirus was successfully defeated in Europe, but that was not the case here. A number of countries in the region have been affected by a new wave of infection driven by highly-transmissible mutations of the Omicron variant – as noted by the Head of the European Medicines Agency’s Health Threats and Vaccines Strategy, Dr. Marco Cavaleri, TASS reports.
Cavaleri explained that this refers to sub-variants of the Omicron strain under the names BA.4 and BA.5. It is expected that these will replace all other variants of coronavirus across European countries by the end of July.
However, there is no need to panic. He said that while there is no evidence the variants make people more sick than earlier strains of the virus, ‘the increase in transmission among older age groups is starting to translate into severe disease’. Vaccines also help provide protection.
