More than half of people in Europe are on track to contract the omicron coronavirus variant in the next two months if infections continue at current rates, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.
"At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation forecasts that more than 50% of the population in the region will be infected with omicron in the next six to eight weeks," Hans Kluge, regional director for WHO's European office, told a press conference, DW (Deutsche Welle) reports.
The WHO's European region comprises 53 countries and territories including several in Central Asia. Kluge noted that 50 of them had confirmed cases of the omicron variant.
According to the WHO, 26 of those countries reported that over 1% of their populations were "catching COVID each week" as of January 10.
Kluge stressed that "approved vaccines do continue to provide good protection against severe disease and death, including for omicron."
