WHO warns against COVID-19 surge in 110 nations, says 'pandemic changing but not over yet'

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing but is not over yet, the Chief of the World Health Organisation warned nations, underscoring that cases were rising in as many as 110 countries. On Wednesday, the Director-General of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed media reporters stating that the new wave was driven by BA.4 and BA.5 variants in many places. According to the agency’s latest coronavirus tally, overall cases have risen to 543,352,927 while 6,331,059 people have died. 

"This pandemic is changing but it's not over. Our ability to track the COVID-19 virus is under threat as reporting and genomic sequences are declining meaning it is becoming harder to track Omicron and analyse future emerging variants," Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The agency chief further asserted that the new variants of the virus have caused the global tally to rise by 20 per cent. He also stated that deaths have increased in 3 of the 6 WHO regions, despite the global rates remaining relatively stable. Pertaining to the situation, the UN health agency has called on all countries to vaccinate at least 70 per cent of their overall population.

12 million vaccinated in 18 months: WHO

Talking about vaccination, Ghebreyesus said that over 12 million people have been vaccinated in the past 18 months. But on the flip side, he said, “hundreds of millions of people, including tens of millions of health workers and older people in lower-income countries remain unvaccinated, which means they are more vulnerable to future waves of the virus.” Presenting the example of Rwanda, he said that only 58 countries have been able to hit the 70 per cent target. 

At the same conference, the Director-General stated that the emergency nature of the outbreak required strong response activities even though monkeypox is not currently regarded as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. “While the Emergency Committee did not advise that the monkeypox outbreak represents a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, they acknowledged the emergency nature of the event requiring intense response efforts,” citing WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, he later wrote on Twitter. Tedros highlighted, “They advised that I should reconvene them quickly based on the evolving situation, which I will do."

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