COPENHAGEN, (Reuters) – The Omicron version of COVID-19 could infect over half of Europeans but should not be considered an endemic flu, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), on Tuesday.

Hans Kluge from WHO Europe, the director of Europe, said that Europe experienced more than 7 million new cases in its first week of 2022. That’s more than twice as many than in a 2-week period.

Kluge spoke of a University of Washington research center.

Kluge reported that 50 percent of the 53 countries of Europe and central Asia had experienced cases of this more serious variant.

There is evidence that Omicron affects the upper respiratory tract much more than it does the lungs. However, this is not a new phenomenon.

However, the WHO cautioned that more research is needed to confirm this.

Pedro Sanchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, stated Monday that it might be time for a change in how COVID-19 tracks its evolution. He suggested instead using a similar method to influenza, as COVID-19 has lost some of its deadly potential.

It would be treating the virus more as an endemic condition than a pandemic. This means that each case of the disease is recorded and all patients are tested.

Catherine Smallwood from WHO, Europe’s Senior Emergency Officer, stated that this is still a “way off”. She also said that the transmission of endemicity must be stable and predictable.

We still face a lot of uncertainty, and the virus is constantly evolving. This creates new problems. Smallwood indicated that it is not yet endemic.

“It could become an endemic in the future, but pining that down to 2022 at this point is a bit challenging.”