Kluge: Surge of COVID cases in China won’t affect epidemiological situation in Europe

The ongoing surge in cases in China won’t have a significant impact on the epidemiological situation with COVID in the WHO Regional Office for Europe, Hans Kluge, director of WHO Regional Office for Europe, said at a press conference on January 10, Report informs.

“For those countries in our region introducing precautionary travel measures at this time, we are calling for such to be rooted in science, to be proportionate and non-discriminatory,” he noted.

“While we acknowledge that China has been sharing virus sequencing information, we need detailed and regular information, especially on local epidemiology and variants, to better ascertain the evolving situation.

In the first five weeks of 2022, variant information on 1.2 million cases was submitted as part of weekly surveillance data to WHO and our partner, the ECDC. However, this declined to about 90,000 cases in the last five weeks of the year.”