The Chinese coronavirus is likely moving into a “kind of pandemic endgame” in Europe, the regional director of the World Health Organization (W.H.O) has said.

While countries such as Austria and Germany move towards mandatory vaccinations and France has implemented a fully-fledged vaccine passport on Monday, Dr Hans Kluge, the European regional director for the W.H.O. has said that the “emergency phase” of the virus may be coming to a close.

“It’s plausible that the region is moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame,” the Belgian doctor told the Agence France-Presse, predicting that the omicron variant of the Wuhan virus could infect up to 60 per cent of Europeans by March.