The Covid-19 pandemic is changing but it is not over, WHO director-general
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
said on Wednesday, cautioning that infections were on a rise in 110 countries and are being driven mainly by two fast-spreading
Omicron
sub-variants. “Driven by BA.4 and BA.5, cases are on the rise in 110 countries, causing overall global cases to increase by 20% and deaths have risen in three of the six WHO regions even as the global figure remains relatively stable,”
Tedros
said.
The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants have been detected throughout the world, and they fueled a surge of cases in
South Africa
in the spring, despite widespread preexisting immunity to the virus. BA.4 and BA.5 are able to elude some of the antibodies produced after vaccinations and infections, including infections caused by some earlier versions of Omicron.
Tedros said the ability to track the virus is “under threat” as reporting and genomic sequences are declining, making it harder to track Omicron and analyse future emerging variants. The WHO chief also voiced concern over the slow pace of vaccination in lower-income countries, making them vulnerable to future waves of the virus. “We’re close to the mid-point of the year, which is the point at which WHO had called on all countries to vaccinate at least 70% of their population… Only 58 countries have hit the 70% target.” PTI & NYT
