The major health crisis that India is currently going through may have its origin in part in the so-called Indian variant of the coronavirus, but also in certain behaviors such as non-compliance with health restrictions, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
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“It is still a huge challenge in countries where personal protection measures are relaxed, where there are mass gatherings, where there are more contagious variants and where vaccination coverage is still low, it can cause a perfect storm ”for the health systems of any country, warned the director of WHO Europe during an online press point.
23 passengers and crew tested positive in Italy on flight from India
Italy is the perfect illustration of this: while the country has just relaxed its restrictive measures, a plane from India deposited on Roman soil, Wednesday evening, 23 passengers who tested positive for Covid-19.
These patients represent about 10% of travelers and crew members.
It is too early to tell if these people have the Indian variant of Covid-19, as sequencing of the virus is still underway.
All positive people and contact cases were taken to specialized structures, “Covid-hotels”, where they were placed in isolation.
Italy has since Sunday prohibited entry to its territory to people from India, but it has not suspended flights between the two countries, in particular to allow Italian residents in India to return to the peninsula.
Hans Kluge, the director of the WHO, reminded the fifty or so countries of the European continent that "individual and collective public health measures and social measures remain decisive factors" in curbing the pandemic, at a time when the number of new cases in Europe drops "significantly for the first time in two months".
7% of the vaccinated population in Europe
The Indian variant, B 1.617, has been detected in 17 countries including several in Europe.
It was categorized as a "variant of interest" and not "a variant of concern" - a designation which would indicate that the mutation is more dangerous.
Across the WHO European region, which includes several Central Asian countries, 7% of the population is fully immunized. According to data from the international organization, this is more than the number of people who have been sick with Covid-19 - 5.5% of Europeans.