The Covid-19 pandemic is still taking its toll on the world, causing around 1,000 deaths each week in the World Health Organisation’s European region. With the recency of the pandemic, focus has increasingly turned to long Covid, a condition with which a significant portion of the population is still suffering. Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, said that almost 36 million people may have experienced long-lasting health problems due to coronavirus infections in the first three years of the pandemic. He added that it is “a complex condition [that] we still know very little about”, and called it “a glaring blind spot in our knowledge”.

The WHO’s European region encompasses 53 countries, from Ireland to Uzbekistan, and includes several in Central Asia. The University of Washington in the US has estimated that about one in 30 of the region’s 900 million residents have experienced long Covid over the past three years. It is believed that some people are more prone to developing long Covid due to underlying conditions such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic lung illnesses. As Dr Kluge said, “Those with such underlying conditions were, and still are, far more vulnerable to severe forms of Covid-19.”

Last month, the WHO declared Covid-19 no longer a global emergency, but this does not mean the pandemic has ended. The organisation noted recent spikes in cases in South-East Asia and the Middle East, and emphasised that the effects of Covid-19 will still be felt for a long time to come. This is especially true for long Covid. Dr Kluge said that “unless we develop comprehensive diagnostics and treatment for long Covid, we will never truly recover from the pandemic.”

He added that “whilst it may not be a global public health emergency, however, Covid-19 has not gone away.” The WHO and other organisations are working hard to gain a better understanding of long Covid and how to treat it, as well as how to prevent people from developing it in the first place. It is hoped that with more research and better diagnostics, the lasting effects of Covid-19 in Europe will eventually come to an end.