Vaccines work against coronavirus variants but international travel still not safe, WHO warns

WHO’s European director Hans Kluge said international travel should be avoided as progress against the pandemic remains ‘fragile’

All virus variants that have emerged so far do respond to the available, approved vaccines, he added

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Passengers walk through a terminal at Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport in Greece. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 9:08pm, 20 May 2021Updated: 9:08pm, 20 May 2021

Progress against the coronavirus pandemic remains “fragile” and international travel should be avoided, a World Health Organization director warned on Thursday, while stressing that authorised vaccines work against variants of concern.

“Right now, in the face of a continued threat and new uncertainty, we need to continue to exercise caution, and rethink or avoid international travel,” WHO’s European director Hans Kluge said, before adding that “pockets of increasing transmission” on the continent could quickly spread.

The so-called Indian variant, which might be more transmissible, has now been identified in at least 26 of the 53 countries in the WHO Europe region, Kluge said during his weekly press conference.

But he said that authorised vaccines are effective against the new strain.

“All Covid-19 virus variants that have emerged so far do respond to the available, approved vaccines,” Kluge said, adding that all strains can be controlled with the same public health and social measures used until now.