Australia Approaching Peak Of Fourth COVID Wave, EMA Warns Of Case Spike In Winter

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has urged EU countries to prepare for a another wave of COVID-19 pandemic as cold winter months arrive.

Australia has been reporting about 12, 000 new COVID-19 cases daily in the past few days, a 10 per cent increase from the previous week, as per the country's Health Department. Health experts are of the opinion that Australia is approaching the peak of its fourth wave of COVID-19 infections.

In the week ending Friday, more than 2,000 people with COVID-19 infections were hospitalised, the number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients was below 2000 the previous week. In the same week, more than 100 deaths were reported in Australia, according to the country's health department.

Experts are very hopeful that cases will come down well before Christmas.

Europe facing new wave of COVID-19pandemic

In Europe, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has warned of the possibility of a new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as cold winter months arrive. It has urged EU countries to prepare for the potential threat, particularly stressing vaccination and revaccination for vulnerable groups.

Addressing a press briefing, Marco Cavaleri, head of Health Threats and Vaccines Strategy of the EMA, said that COVID-19 virus is evolving in a fast pace and new Omicron subvariants such as BQ.1.1 and its offsprings are spreading and replacing Omicron BA.5. He raised concern that these new strains have higher tendency for immune evasion and growth advantage and they can beat the currently available monoclonal antibody products.

Moreover, the average rate of vaccine booster uptake in the EU region has been very less in the last few months, Cavaleri said it's "rather disappointing."

Cavaleri stressed the need for more efforts to increase the revaccination rate of vulnerable groups (those aged above 60 with chronic conditions and immunocompromised) to avoid rising hospitalization in the coming months.

EMA Chief Medical Officer Steffen Thirstrup, who was also present at the press briefing, said that a lot of viruses with high transmission potential are still circulating out there.

Stating the pandemic is still on, Thirstrup underscored the importance of vaccination and revaccination, particularly for people at highest risk.