INTERNATIONAL: The World Health Organization's (WHO) regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge has announced on Thursday that Europe's Covid-19 situation was entering a "plausible endgame."

Europe slowly starts to consider treating Covid like the flu. But of course, new metrics are needed as Covid becomes endemic. Hospitalization rates remain manageable despite surging cases.

WHO’s Regional Director for Europe, Mr. Hans Kluge made the comments during a WHO conference on the status of Covid-19 throughout the region.

He has added that while the pandemic is not over, the European region had an opportunity to take control of transmission thanks to a combination of vaccine drives, a favourable seasonality pause, and a lower severity of the Omicron variant.

Some 12 million new cases were reported in Europe in the past week, marking the highest weekly case incidence since the start of the pandemic, largely driven by the spread of Omicron.

However, the case incidence rate and overall admissions to intensive care have not increased significantly and the number of deaths across the region is starting to plateau.