WHO Director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said on Thursday that further measures are needed to “smooth out the steep vertical line” of rising cases in some countries.
Although the variant appears to spread more easily than others, there is no evidence that it is more deadly or causes more serious illness.
Health officials have also minimized the possibility that coronavirus vaccines will not work against the variant.
But in the UK, healthcare professionals are struggling with a sharp increase in cases and deaths. The country recorded a total of 1,041 deaths on Wednesday, in addition to 62,322 new cases.
Kluge, speaking at a news conference, said the UK variant has already been detected in 22 countries in the WHO European region.
“It is our assessment that this variant of concern may, over time, replace other circulating strains as seen in the UK and increasingly in Denmark,” said Kluge.
“With the increase in transmissibility and similar severity of the disease, the variant, however, raises the alarm: without greater control to delay its spread, there will be a greater impact on health units already stressed and pressurized.”
“This is an alarming situation, which means that, for a short period of time, we need to do more than we have done and step up public health and social measures to make sure that we can flatten the steep vertical line in some countries” said Kluge. added.
Kluge then urged countries “to mitigate this burden by doing everything they can to reduce transmission and increase surveillance to identify any new variants”.
Several European countries are currently blocked or have imposed measures restricted to Covid-19, including Britain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Greece.