The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday warned of ‘alarming rate of transmission’ of COVID-19 across Europe and cautioned countries against shortening quarantine period.

Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, stated that the number of coronavirus cases seen in September “should serve as a wake-up call for all of us.”

Addressing an online press conference from the Danish capital of Copenhagen, Kluge said: “Although these numbers reflect more comprehensive testing, it also shows alarming rates of transmission across the region.”

WHO also refrained from changing its stipulated guidelines calling for a 14-day quarantine period for patients exposed to the coronavirus.

Catherine Smallwood, WHO Europe’s senior emergency officer, said that the stipulated 14-day quarantine period was arrived at after much discussion and study of the disease. She added that the WHO decided against revising the 14-day quarantine period only after proper study of the incubation period of the virus and the transmission of the disease.

Smallwood said, “Our quarantine recommendation of 14 days has been based on our understanding of the incubation period and transmission of the disease. We would only revise that on the basis of a change of our understanding of the science.”

Countries like France, United Kingdom and Ireland have reduced the period for self-isolation in case of exposure to the coronavirus, with France reducing it to seven days. Portugal, Croatia, UK, Ireland and several other European countries have reduced the period of self-isolation in case of exposure to 10 days.

Kluge stated that the concept of quarantine must be protected and added “Knowing the immense individual and societal impact even a slight reduction in the length of quarantine can have… I encourage countries of the region to make scientific due process with their experts and explore safe reduction options.”

The 53 member states of WHO Europe have recorded nearly five million cases of COVID-19 and have recorded more than 227,000 deaths. The daily number of COVID-19 cases being record is now between 40,000 and 50,000 and is similar to the daily peak of 43,000 from April 1. While the larger number of cases may be attributed to greater testing, some 54,000 coronavirus cases were recorded in 24 hours on September 11 marking a new record.