WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus told
journalists in Geneva on Wednesday that after several weeks of declines,
reported cases of COVID-19 were once again increasing globally, especially in
parts of Asia.
According to him, a combination of factors, including
misinformation that the pandemic is over, the lifting of mask mandates, ending
physical distancing – and a more transmissible Omicron BA.2 variant – are
causing an increase of COVID-19 cases globally.
In the past week, the agency has seen an eight per cent
increase in detection of COVID-19 cases, with more than 11 million positive
test results.
“These increases are occurring despite reductions in testing
in some countries, which means the cases we are seeing are just the tip of the
iceberg,” he explained, warning that when cases tick up, so do deaths.
Mr Ghebreyesus said that continued local outbreaks and
surges were to be expected, particularly in areas where measures to prevent
transmission had been lifted.
He said that there are ‘unacceptably high’ levels of
mortality in many countries, especially where vaccination levels were low among
susceptible populations.
“Each country is facing a different situation with different
challenges, but the pandemic is not over,” he reiterated.
WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove explained that a combination of
factors was fuelling the increase of cases worldwide, beginning with a more
transmissible variant.
“We still have Omicron which is transmitting at a very
intense level around the world.
“We have sub-lineages of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2. BA.2 is more
transmissible, and this is the most transmissible variant we have seen of the
SARS-COV2 virus to date,” she warned.
The COVID-19 Technical Lead informed that in the last 30
days of more than 400,000 sequences sampled, 99.9 per cent are Omicron, and 75
per cent correspond to the BA.2 variant.
“We do not see an increase in severity with BA.2. However,
with huge numbers of cases you will see increase hospitalisations and we have
seen this in country after country,” Kerkhove highlighted.
Another factor influencing the increase of numbers is the
lifting of public health and social measures.
“Lifting of the use of masks, lifting of physical
distancing, lifting of restrictions limiting people’s movement, this provides
the virus an opportunity to spread,” Kerkhove cautioned.
The expert also pointed out that there are ‘huge amounts of
misinformation’ causing a lot of confusion among people.
“The misinformation that Omicron is mild, misinformation
that the pandemic is over, misinformation that this is the last variant that we
will have to deal with,” she explained.
Meanwhile, Mike Ryan, WHO’s Executive Director of the Health
Emergencies Programme clarified that the virus has not ‘settled down’ into a
purely seasonal or predictable pattern yet.
“So, the idea that ‘we are through with it’ in the northern
hemisphere and now we have to wait until next winter, I think (for example)
when we look at increasing rates in the UK, we need to be very vigilant and
cautious with this,” he said.
The expert added that the virus is still ‘very fit’ and it’s
moving around easily and in the context of waning immunity and vaccines not
acting perfectly against infection, the virus will likely continue to echo
around the world.
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