The World Health Organization's regional chief warned this week that Europe was in the grip of a fresh Covid-19 surge less than two months after forecasting a long period of tranquility.
The rapid spread of a highly infectious version of the Omicron coronaviruses variant, known as BA.2 spurred Hans Kluge's face. The strain has taken hold as people stop wearing masks and socialise more, prompting a jump in infections in at least 18 European countries, according to the WHO.
Experts predict that North America will be hit by a similar resurgence within weeks, with some warning that the US could be exposed to a bigger wave of hospitalisations than its European peers.
The original Omicron strain is more likely to result in hospitalisation than the Omicron sub-variant, according to analysis by the UK Health Security Agency.
With boosters waning and restriction easing, a second part of the Omicron wave was always likely but BA.2 has made that worse.
European countries have continued to drop restrictions despite the increase in infections.
The way the UK and the rest of Europe are treating this is that it is no longer about cases, but about hospitalisations and deaths.
The share of cases requiring hospital admission has gone up in countries with the most advanced BA.2 waves, but it is still lower than in countries with pre-Omicron versions. High levels of immunity across the western world, along with the sub-variants of lower virulence, are partly to blame for the reduction in rates of severe disease.
Poland will eliminate most of its remaining restrictions from March 28, including compulsory indoor masking and self-isolation for people who test positive.
The Italian government plans to end the country's state of emergency at the end of this month despite the fact that infections have doubled since March.
Even though it faces a record-high caseload, Germany ended most legal restrictions earlier this week. Despite a record number of Covid-19 patients requiring hospital treatment, Scotland reduced its self-isolation and testing requirements.
The use of high-grade masks in indoor public settings will be required from Wednesday in Austria in response to the BA.2 wave.
The professor of epidemiology at the University of Bremen said that the fear is less now that hospitals are becoming.
Germany is facing a bigger threat from BA.2 than its neighbours because of lower vaccination rates among elderly, vulnerable groups. Most German states have delayed ending indoor mask-wearing restrictions until early April despite the German parliament abolishing most legal measures.
France's decision to lift mask mandates last week was a mistake, according to the director of the Institute of Global Health. The country had 100,000 infections per day and a seven-day incidence rate of 928 per 100,000 people.
The French government's adviser on the disease said that BA.2 did not present a huge problem. The country's health service has the capacity to handle the wave, experts say, given that Covid-19 hospitalisations have been declining for six weeks.
Kluge said on Tuesday that he was optimistic about the trajectory of Covid-19 in Europe. The hope of many experts is that summer will offer a respite from the high infections since Omicron first emerged.
We should still be able to get back to normal because it is running out of people to spread it to and the warmer months of summer are on the way.
Concerns about the rapid spread of BA.2 are growing among health experts in the US, where federal and state authorities are lifting Covid-19 restrictions and vaccination rates lag behind many European countries.
According to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a third of Americans have not received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, and only 29 percent have received a booster.
Our vaccine hesitancy and the rate at which we have managed to vaccine and boost our higher risk population is lagging, and that is probably the number one thing that leaves us very vulnerable.
Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, said on Sunday that he did not expect a surge in cases caused by BA.2 to require the reinstatement of strict social restrictions.
Cha said the rapid removal of restrictions by authorities was worrying, given the rapid spread of BA.2 in Europe and the likelihood that it would do the same in the US.
Cha said that he worried that this would add fuel to the virus.
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