With known coronavirus infections increasing dramatically globally, Omicron evolution continues and increasing pressure on public health systems, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday the pandemic remains a public health emergency.
The agency, part of the United Nations, first declared the coronavirus outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” on January 30, 2020, nearly two and a half years ago.
According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO
“The virus is roaming freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity, both in terms of hospitalization rates for acute cases and the growing number of people infected with the disease. post-Covid-19 – commonly known as long Covid,” he said at a press conference in Geneva.
As of Monday, more than average 930,000 won New confirmed virus cases are being reported globally every day, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. That’s a 37 percent increase over the past two weeks. During the same period, there was an average of more than 1,700 people diedup 18%, Johns Hopkins data shows.
The reported cases are considered a significantly low number compared to the true infection rate, as the WHO noted, because testing and tracing has been limited. Immunity is waning in wealthy nations that have had access to a vaccine for about a year and a half, although the vaccine remains highly protective against the worst outcomes.
In addition, countries like the United States have dropped doses of vaccines, while not even two-third The world’s population is fully immunized, according to Our world in data project at the University of Oxford.
Those vaccines, while valuable, have become obsolete. Last week, US regulators pledged to update the 2020 vaccine formulations for the booster campaign this fall with new formulations to protect against super-infectious Omicron subvariants.
Health officials say rapidly spreading secondary variables, known as BA.4 and BA.5, are driving the rise in the summer coronavirus in Europe, health officials said. BA.5 predominate among new cases in the United States, where increased testing positivity indicates that many parts of the country are experiencing new outbreak infection.
Follow estimate released on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Combined, two auxiliary variables accounting for about 52 percent of new cases just two weeks ago.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Covid-19 technical team leader, said: “Reports of BA.5 are growing substantially and have increased dramatically in the last four weeks alone. “We expect that trend to continue around the world, but we will continue to evaluate this as we move forward. We need more data to be able to do that – to revisit the possibility of transmission and get rid of the severity.”
The WHO emergency committee convened virtually on Friday to assess the course of the pandemic and decide it should continue. to meet the criteria in the event of a health emergency.
“There is a major disconnect in the risk perception of Covid-19 among the scientific communities, political leaders and the public,” said Dr Tedros on Tuesday. “Covid-19 is not that recent.”
