WHO says covid-19 transmission in Europe is "alarming"

The level of transmission of covid-19 in Europe is "alarming", said on Thursday the World Health Organization (WHO), which said it was concerned with the reduction of quarantine time decided or planned by some countries, such as France .

The September numbers should serve as a wake-up call for all of us in Europe, where the number of cases is higher than those recorded in March and April, said the director of WHO on the continent, Hans Kluge, in Copenhagen.

The UN agency also ruled out changing the 14-day quarantine time, recommended for all those who have been in contact with the virus.

"Our 14-day quarantine recommendation is based on our understanding of the incubation and transmission period of the disease. We would only review it based on our scientific knowledge, which is not the case at the moment," said Catherine Smallwood, director of emergency at WHO Europe.

In France, the duration of isolation has been reduced to seven days in case of contact. In the UK and Ireland the term is 10 days. Other European countries, like Portugal and Croatia, also plan to shorten the quarantines.

Kluge recalled the "immense individual and social impact that can be caused by a reduction in tem, even minimal, in quarantine".

"I encourage countries in the region to follow the regular scientific procedure with their experts and to explore safe options for reducing quarantine time," he insisted.

The WHO Europe region, which brings together 53 countries, including Russia, records nearly five million official cases and more than 227,000 deaths caused by covid-19, according to the institution.

New outbreaks of the epidemic and the greater number of tests compared to the March-April wave brought the daily number of cases to between 40,000 and 50,000. In the first wave, April 1 recorded a record 43,000 contagions, according to WHO Europe.

The new absolute daily record was set on September 11, with 54,000 contagions in 24 hours.