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WHO: COVID-19 Infections Increase by 30% Worldwide

  • The rise of COVID-19 cases could herald a bigger problem as some countries report a drop in testing rates, WHO said, warning nations to remain vigilant against the virus, with COVID cases increasing worldwide.

    The rise of COVID-19 cases could herald a bigger problem as some countries report a drop in testing rates, WHO said, warning nations to remain vigilant against the virus, with COVID cases increasing worldwide. | Photo: Twitter @LolweTv

Published 7 July 2022
Opinion

WHO points to inefficient administration of commercially available treatments, lax prevention; and the arrival of summer in the Northern Hemisphere as causes of the infectious rise.
 


The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday about the increase of almost 30 percent of Covid-19 infections worldwide in the last two weeks, due to the spread of the known subvariants of the Omicron strain.

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The Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a press conference that this increase has also contributed to the appearance of new sub-lineages, such as BA.2.75 detected in India and which is being monitored by the global health body.

On the other hand, the senior official pointed out that the rate of deaths "has been decoupled" from the number of cases, which has not led to a significant increase in hospitalizations in intensive care units.

He pointed out that this growing trend is evidence of the problems about which warnings have been issued, such as the sharp drop in diagnostic tests in many countries, which "hides the true evolution of the virus and the real burden of COVID-19 cases in the world," he said.

The Director General added the fact that the inefficient administration of the treatments available on the market has threatened the prevention of serious cases and deaths, especially in poor nations, "where the new treatments, especially the new oral antivirals, are not reaching".

Incidentally, he asked the pharmaceutical company Pfizer to collaborate with health organizations and countries so that its new antiviral becomes available soon; at the same time he stressed the need for each government to prioritize in its management the application of booster doses to vulnerable population groups.

The WHO attributes the current wave of COVID-19 mainly to the perception that people have that the virus will become endemic, and consequently to the total relaxation of prevention measures, in addition to the onset of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

In this regard, the WHO Director of Emergencies, Mike Ryan, stated that "we are not telling anyone to go back to confinement, to confinement, we have had two and a half difficult years, people want to return to normal life, but we are asking countries to protect the most vulnerable".

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the total number of infections has reached almost 549 million, while the number of deaths has exceeded 6,350,000 as a result of this pathology, according to WHO data.

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