Urgent need to take preventive measures in the fight against COVID-19 the focus of new WHO/Europe campaign
 

As we go into the winter months, WHO/Europe is urging people to take preventive measures, including getting vaccinated, to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Over recent weeks, the WHO European Region has seen a huge surge in case numbers. In the last week alone, there were more than 2.5 million new cases and 29 466 deaths from the disease.

As Katie Smallwood, Incident Manager for COVID-19, says, “After 2 years of disruptions to our lives caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are all naturally desperate to return to a sense of normality and to get back the freedoms we had before the pandemic. Unfortunately, we’re not there yet. This is a critical moment for our societies and we need to be really vigilant given the potential threats we face this winter.”

 

A new study by the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published in Eurosurveillance estimates that 470 000 lives have been saved among those aged 60 years and over since the start of COVID-19 vaccination rollout in 33 countries across the WHO European Region.

This estimate does not include lives saved by vaccinating people under 60 nor lives saved from the indirect effect of vaccination because of a reduction in transmission.

What are public health and social health measures and why are they still needed at this stage in the COVID-19 pandemic?
 

We spoke to Dr Ihor Perehinets, who leads WHO/Europe’s Public Health and Social Measures pillar (part of the COVID-19 Incident Management Support Team), to better understand what public health and social health measures mean, what difference they have made during the pandemic, and why we still need to apply them alongside the rollout of COVID-19 vaccination programmes.

Turkmenistan: WHO/Europe high-level experts complete mission to strengthen health system preparedness
 

A multidisciplinary team of WHO experts completed a week-long mission to Turkmenistan that took place on 13–20 November 2021. The team worked with governmental authorities on ways to fortify their health system preparedness, particularly in light of the global pandemic emergency.

Dr Dorit Nitzan, Regional Emergency Director for WHO/Europe, led the mission. She commented, “During our visit, we were keen to highlight the evolving nature of the pandemic throughout the WHO European Region due to the spread of the Delta variant. We also drew attention to the emergence of new variants and the spread seen globally, even in countries with high vaccination coverage.”

Georgia: civil society builds health workers’ skills to respond to the needs of domestic violence survivors during the pandemic
 

“Looking at the statistics on victims of [domestic] violence during COVID-19 in Georgia and in neighbouring countries, we see that the situation has worsened,” said Luka Khabazishvili, Head of Clinical Research at the Institute of Clinical Oncology in Tbilisi, Georgia. Luka is one of 160 Georgian health workers who were trained to recognize and respond to signs of gender-based violence in their patients.

Greece: civil society reduces barriers to health and education for young people with disabilities during the pandemic
 

Together for Children, a network of Greek civil society organizations (CSOs) that supports people with disabilities, has been helping students with intellectual disabilities who are self-isolating, to get online to continue their studies during the pandemic – maintaining their education and social connections, and safeguarding their mental health.

In total, the Together for Children project has reached out to 2000 individuals with disabilities and their families through their network, and a further 5000 through the wider network of providers who collaborate with them nationwide.

World Health Assembly agrees to launch process to develop historic global accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response
 

In a consensus decision aimed at protecting the world from future infectious diseases crises, the World Health Assembly agreed to kickstart a global process to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument under the Constitution of the World Health Organization to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said the decision by the World Health Assembly was historic in nature, vital in its mission, and represented a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strengthen the global health architecture to protect and promote the well-being of all people.

What you need to know about the new Omicron COVID-19 variant
 

On 26 November, WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) designated the B.1.1.529 variant, first reported by South Africa 2 days earlier, as a variant of concern, named Omicron.

We spoke to Dr Richard Pebody, who leads the High-threat Pathogen team and the Surveillance and Laboratory pillar of the COVID-19 Incident Support Management Team (IMST) at WHO/Europe to find out more about the variant, why it is of concern and what can be done to control it.

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