Europe

Europeans face big mental health issues despite COVID easing - survey The number of Europeans reporting "bad" or "very bad" mental health soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, even beyond the end of lockdowns, new polling showed on Thursday. Reuters Reuters

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Will there be a COVID winter wave? What scientists say Nature - Emerging variants and waning immunity are likely to push infections higher in the northern hemisphere as influenza also makes a comeback. Callaway, Ewen nature

Evidence is building that the northern hemisphere is on course for a surge of COVID-19 cases this autumn and winter. New immune-evading strains of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, behaviour changes, and waning immunity mean that many countries could soon see large numbers of COVID infections — and potentially hospitalizations — say scientists.

Germany warns of rise in COVID-19 cases going into fall BERLIN (AP) — Germany's health minister warned Friday that the country is seeing a steady rise in COVID-19 cases as it goes into the fall, and urged older people to get a second booster shot tweaked to protect against new variants. AP NEWS

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Other European countries such as France, Denmark and the Netherlands are also recording an increase in cases, Karl Lauterbach told reporters in Berlin.

“We are clearly at the start of a winter wave,” he said.

The WHO global infodemic manager community of practice is growing and tackling COVID-19, monkeypox and other outbreaks The WHO-trained infodemic managers, over 1300 of them from 142 countries, are already making great strides in Member States and together around the globe as a global community of practice.

From WHO press release:

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