Nabarro from WHO: New wave of pandemic in early 2021, Europe's reaction incomplete

(Patria) - The World Health Organization (WHO) representative for Covid-19 predicted a third wave of the pandemic in Europe in early 2021, if governments repeat, as he said, the failure to do what is necessary to prevent the second wave of infection.

"They did not build the necessary infrastructure during the summer months, as they brought the first wave of infection under control. Now we have a second wave. If they do not build the necessary infrastructure, we will have a third wave at the beginning of next year," said WHO representative David Nabarro in an interview with Swiss media.

Europe briefly saw a drop in infection rates, and now the infection has spread again: Germany and France recorded an increase of 33,000 cases on Saturday, Switzerland and Austria have a thousand cases daily, while Turkey reported a record 5,532 new cases.

Nabarro singled out Switzerland's move to allow skiing - with mandatory mask-wearing on cable cars - while other Alpine countries have closed ski resorts. Nabarro said that Switzerland could reach "a very high level of sick and deceased." Nabarro praised the responses of Asian countries like South Korea, where the infection rate is relatively low.

"People were fully engaged, they adopted behaviors that make it difficult for the virus to spread. They maintain distance, wear masks, isolate themselves when sick, wash their hands and face. They protect the most vulnerable groups. You have to wait until the number of infected people decreases and stays that way. Europe's reaction was not complete," he said.