The Omicron variant is forecasted to infect more than half of all Europeans in the next six to eight weeks, a World Health Organization official said Tuesday as he urged nations to strengthen mask rules and warned that the window to act was closing.

Record Covid-19 cases have put Europe under increased pressure this winter, with some countries scaling up restrictions and others, like Austria, Greece and Italy, announcing new vaccine requirements.

Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, told a virtual news conference that European and Central Asian countries remain "under intense pressure from Covid-19" in 2022. The Omicron variant represents a new West to East tidal wave sweeping across the region on top of the Delta surge that all countries were managing until late 2021. At this rate the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation forecasts that more than 50% of the population in the region will be infected with Omicron in the next 6 to 8 weeks" he said

Dr. Hans also called on countries not yet affected by the surge "to mandate the use of high quality masks in closed and indoor settings and ensure that vulnerable individuals have access to them" due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

He explained that Europe has yet to see the full impact of the variant in countries "where levels of vaccination uptake are lower," and he is "deeply concerned" about Omicron surging into eastern Europe where "we will see more severe disease in the unvaccinated."

Covid cases in children are surging

As Omicron takes its toll around the world, the infrastructure that has kept schools running over the past year is in jeopardy. The variant, which has spurred a record rise in pediatric infections in the United Kingdom, parts of Europe and the United States, threatens to topple the balance that allowed schools to mostly stay open last year.

In the US, more children are being admitted to hospitals than ever before. The Biden administration has said schools are "more than equipped" to stay open, as Omicron rips across the country. But some elected officials are erring on the side of caution by delaying the new term, while a teachers' union forced public schools in Chicago, Illinois, to shutter for a week amid criticism from members that conditions in classrooms are dangerous.

While children have been less likely than adults to develop severe illness from Covid-19, they can still get very sick or die, or they could develop complications like life-threatening multisystem inflammatory syndrome and long Covid. Up to one in seven children and young people may have Covid-19 symptoms as many as 15 weeks after illness, a study by the UCL Great Ormond Street Hospital in central London found.

Two years into the pandemic, public health experts have made clear which mitigation measures would make classrooms safer: vaccination, masks in classrooms, regular testing, contact tracing, bubble-systems, isolation and improved ventilation.

The World Health Organization's regional director for Europe, Dr. Hans Kluge, said in early December that masks and ventilation, combined with testing, should be a standard in all primary schools and that vaccinating children should be considered nationally.
-CNN