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WHO warns against COVID-19 complacency, variants provoke new measures

The World Health Organization warned Europe against rash reopenings on Thursday (Feb 11) despite a fall in new COVID-19 cases and Germany announced a partial border closure, reminders of the long battle ahead before vaccines can tame the pandemic.

Mass COVID-19 vaccination programmes are being ramped up in many countries in the race against more contagious variants, and governments are urging populations to continue to cope with closures as the inoculation campaigns move ahead.

But while new cases and deaths have come down in some places, a WHO official said it was by no means time to ease up.

"The decline in cases conceals increasing numbers of outbreaks and community spread involving variants of concern," said WHO Europe director Hans Kluge.

"At this point, the overwhelming majority of European countries remain vulnerable," he added, pointing out the "thin line between the hope of a vaccine and a false sense of security".

More than a million cases are registered every week across the 53 member states in the UN agency's European region, which includes several in Central Asia.

But the number of reported cases has been falling over the past four weeks and deaths have also been declining over the past two weeks.

Worldwide deaths have meanwhile climbed to nearly 2.4 million, with the United States the hardest-hit, while the Middle East surpassed 100,000 fatalities on Thursday.

The US inoculation drive entered a new phase as President Joe Biden's administration was shipping a million doses to around 6,500 drugstores and supermarket pharmacies nationwide, with several chains announcing they would begin giving out the first shots on Friday.

Germany said on Thursday it will ban travel from Czech border regions as well as Austria's Tyrol due to concern over new variants.

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