Published March 16, 2022, 6:39 pm
The World Health Organization on Wednesday expressed concern about the rising number of Covid cases worldwide, despite people receiving fewer and fewer tests.
Asia was particularly affected by the Omicron wave.
“Over the past week, we have seen an increase of 8% in detected cases, while more than 11 million cases have been registered with WHO, and this despite a significant reduction in testing worldwide,” WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove said at a press conference.
Whoever has been in charge of fighting Covid-19 at the WHO since it emerged in late 2019 believes the surge in cases is the result of a “combination of factors.” The wave of infections is largely fueled by Omicron’s BA.2 sub-variant, which is already supplanting its BA.1 sibling in some countries. Without a doubt, BA.2 “is the most infectious variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus we have seen so far,” Ms Van Kerkhove insisted.
Added to this is the lifting of public health measures taken against Covid in many countries, which gives the virus an “opportunity to spread”, as well as incomplete vaccination coverage in many regions of the world.
“Great Confusion”
Finally, the WHO expert deplores the misinformation about Covid-19 that is spreading at a very high level: some say that Omicron is harmless and that this is the last option the world will face other than the pandemic is over… confusion,” which benefits the virus.
“So we are seeing an increase in detected cases around the world for a number of reasons. These are the same factors that have underpinned the transmission of this virus since the start of the pandemic,” concluded Ms Van Kerkhove.
But the good news, she says, is that the world has the means to deal with this before repeating her credo: mask, physical distancing, vaccines, screening, treatment…
(AFP)