Covid-19: WHO warns against a general relaxation in the face of the pandemic

Crowd on the Champs Elysees in Paris, June 17.

AP - Michel Euler

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

The lifting of health measures in the face of the coronavirus was accompanied by a certain relaxation in the barrier gestures, which caused a resurgence of contamination with Covid-19.

They are on the rise again almost on all continents, particularly in Europe.

While we have just passed the 4 million death mark, the WHO is warning again: abandoning anti-Covid-19 measures too quickly will have consequences.

Publicity

Read more

From our correspondent in Geneva

Jérémie Lanche

Among the countries that have reported the most new cases are Brazil, India and Colombia. But Europe is not spared, with 33% more contamination in a week, 67% even in the United Kingdom. Suffice to say that the events that bring together hundreds, even thousands of people, as during the Euro football, are not to the taste of the WHO. For the organization's chief of emergency operations, Mike Ryan, some people are going to have regrets at the end of the summer.

Contaminations will increase, already because not everyone is vaccinated," he

believes

.

That vaccination coverage remains too low.

And we are still not sure whether vaccines are preventing people from getting infected.

So the idea that we're all protected, that it's a party, a return to normalcy, it's a very dangerous idea.

 "

90% of contaminations at the end of August

The risk is that the scenario of summer 2020 will happen again.

With less vigilance, more regroupings and a new wave of contaminations, the consequences of which will only be visible at the start of the school year.

Under the

influence

of the

Delta variant

which should soon be dominant all over the world.

In Europe, the WHO expects it to account for 90% of all contaminations by the end of August.

►Also read

: Covid-19 in France: the fourth wave threatens, the executive is worried

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Coronavirus

  • WHO