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World Cancer Day: EU pledges 'decisive action' to tackle disease

Eastern member states tend to have a higher death rate from cancer than their western counterparts.

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Europe could be moving towards 'a kind of pandemic endgame', says WHO

Europe could be moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame, said WHO's Europe director Hans Kluge. But, he added, it is too early to call COVID an endemic.

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Pandemic is 'nowhere near over', World Health Organization warns

The pandemic is "nowhere near over" and new variants are likely to continue emerging after Omicron, the World Health Organization warned.

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Omicron exposed European health care systems' flaws, experts claim

Two years into the pandemic, Omicron's effect on medical facilities has many reevaluating the resilience of public health systems that are considered essential to providing equal care.

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Omicron in Europe is 'a west-to-east tidal wave', says WHO

Omicron is "quickly becoming the dominant virus in western Europe and is now spreading in the Balkans", said Dr Hans Kluge, regional director for WHO Europe.

Health news

Omicron may be 105% more transmissible than Delta, new research says

The Omicron COVID variant has been spreading rapidly around the world since it was first identified at the end of November.

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Omicron is 'killing people' and should not be called 'mild', WHO warns

A record 9.5 million COVID-19 infections were reported across the world over the previous week — a 71% increase on the previous seven-day period.

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WHO chief warns 'tsunami' of COVID cases could collapse health systems

The World Health Organization said in its weekly epidemiological report that the “overall risk” related to the omicron variant “remains very high.”

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COVID booster dose campaigns will not end pandemic, WHO says

The World Health Organization gave a briefing on COVID-19 as the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreads ahead of the festive holidays.

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Get vaccinated even if you've had COVID before, urges WHO Europe

It comes with Europe in the midst of another wave of COVID, driven in some countries by the more transmissible Omicron variant.

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COVID booster jab 'most important defence' against Omicron, WHO says

Dr Kluge stressed warned last week that as Europe goes into the holiday season, it will be dealing "with two highly transmissible variants."

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Better to cancel Christmas events than grieve later, warns WHO chief

"An event cancelled is better than a life cancelled," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday, highlighting data suggesting Omicron spreads "significantly faster" than the Delta variant.

Russia

Russia misunderstood WHO demands for Sputnik V approval, says Kremlin

Russia was the first country in the world to authorise a coronavirus vaccine last August, but the jab has not yet been approved by the WHO.

World News

Euroviews. Covid-19 in Europe: Be wary of comparing countries | View

Testing strategies for COVID-19 vary widely between different countries and aren't a good measure of population immunity, writes Professor David Heymann, formerly of the World Health Organization, Public Health England, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health news

Omicron COVID variant appears to spread faster than Delta, WHO says

The World Health Organization said that the new Omicron COVID-19 variant appears to spread faster than current variants and that vaccines could be less effective against it.

World News

WHO 'confident' current COVID-19 vaccines will work against Omicron

"We have very effective vaccines that have proven to be effective against all variants so far, in terms of severity of disease and hospitalisation, and there is no reason to think that this would not be the case with Omicron," said WHO emergency manager.

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Mandatory vaccination should be a last resort, says WHO Europe chief

Here's what WHO's Europe office said on mandatory vaccination, booster doses and the threat of the Omicron variant.

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'Don't panic', WHO says, as fears of Omicron COVID-19 variant rise

The World Health Organization's chief scientist says the new variant is 'highly transmissible' but that the world is better prepared than in 2020.

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WHO members eye pandemic preparation as new variant emerges

The World Health Organization opened a special session of member states to discuss ways to better prepare globally to fight pandemics like COVID-19.

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WHO labels new COVID-19 variant 'of concern', names it Omicron

"Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of infection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs (variants of concerns)," the United Nations' health agency said in a statement.