As we go into the winter season, the threat posed by COVID-19 is as high as ever, with the highly transmissible Delta variant dominant throughout Europe and central Asia and a new variant of concern, Omicron, spreading fast – with as yet unknown impacts.
With people socializing more indoors and travelling to visit friends and relatives and for holidays, the opportunities for further virus transmission are significant. The more COVID-19 circulates, the more opportunities the virus has to change. The Delta and Omicron variants are examples of this.
With the right mix of measures, it is possible for countries to find a balance between keeping COVID-19 transmission down and societies and economies open.
Defining a strategy: preventing severe disease and stabilizing transmission
Preventing severe COVID-19 disease and stabilizing transmission should be at the core of governments’ response efforts in the WHO European Region. This can be achieved by:
- continuing to vaccinate, targeting those most at risk and prioritizing eligible groups for booster doses;
- promoting individual protective behaviours to prevent infections in all age groups, regardless of vaccine status; and
- strengthening public health and community-level actions – including testing, genetic sequencing and contact tracing, and regulations for mass gatherings – to stabilize transmission enough to allow daily life to continue and livelihoods to be maintained.
Making decisions about international travel
Policies regarding travel-related public health measures are national decisions, and each country should continue to apply an evidence-informed and risk-based approach when implementing these in accordance with International Health Regulations (IHR) Temporary Recommendations.
Member States may apply appropriate travel-related measures to reduce transmission of the virus from international travel. However, the use of blanket travel bans, particularly in response to new variants such as Omicron, will not prevent the international spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants, and places a heavy burden on countries affected by them.
In addition, these bans can impact global health efforts as they affect the movement of critical supplies and disincentivize countries to report and share data.
WHO/Europe has developed the “Operational framework for international travel-related public health measures in the context of COVID-19” to help Member States with the difficult decisions of when and how to introduce, reintroduce or ease international travel measures. A series of WHO/Europe public health checklists has also been developed to identify the measures necessary to mitigate infection transmission among travellers and transport staff.
Making decisions about mass gatherings
WHO recommends that the decision-making process related to holding, modifying, postponing or cancelling gatherings of any size in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic rely on a risk-based approach. It has produced a policy brief and risk assessment tool to help policy-makers in this regard.
Frequent risk assessments should take place throughout each planning phase and during each event so that policy-makers and event-holders can adapt responses as needed.
Supporting countries to make the right choices
Recently, WHO/Europe launched the online COVID-19 Public Health and Social Measures (PHSM) Calibration Tool to help governments and authorities decide on the type and level of measures to implement in their countries. It brings together the crucial information required to make an assessment, and then provides a situational report with recommendations on appropriate measures.
By using the PHSM Calibration Tool regularly, governments and local authorities can quickly adjust their measures to suit the current or predicted situation. In turn, this should help to reduce transmission of the virus, relieve pressures on health systems, and lessen numbers of people becoming seriously ill or dying from COVID-19.