WHO: COVID-19 Still Threat To Health, Economies, Societies
(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) GENEVA, Jan 4 (KUNA) -- The World health Organization (WHO) has voiced concern about the recent COVID-19 surge in China and warned that the pandemic is still a threat to health, economies, and societies.
'We are really concerned about the current COVID-19 epidemiological picture, with both intense transmission in several parts of the world and a recombinant sub-variant spreading quickly,' Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in virtual press briefing.
The WHO chief said he is concerned about the risk to life in the world's most populous country and reiterated the importance of stepping up vaccination coverage, including booster doses, particularly for vulnerable groups such as older persons.
'We continue to ask China for more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths, as well as more comprehensive, real-time viral sequencing,' he said.
COVID-19 was on the decline for most of 2021, Tedros reported, citing factors such as increased vaccinations worldwide and the identification of new lifesaving antivirals.
However, there are still major inequities in access to testing, treatment and vaccination.
'Every week, approximately 10,000 people die of COVID-19, that we are aware of. The true toll is likely much higher,' he said.
Furthermore, the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is on the rise in the United States and Europe and has been identified in nearly 30 countries.
According to Dr. Maria Van Kherkove, the WHO Technical Lead for COVID-19X, BB.1.5 was initially detected in October 2022. It is the most transmissible subvariant yet.
'We do expect further waves of infection around the world, but that doesn't have to translate into further waves of death because our countermeasures continue to work,' she said.
Dr. Van Kherkove emphasized the importance of continued COVID-19 surveillance around the world to track known subvariants that are in circulation.
Last month, more than 13 million cases of the disease were reported, though WHO believes the toll is higher,
'But more concerning, we've had a 15 percent increase in deaths in the last month and again, we know that that is an underestimate because there are delays in reporting, and with the holiday period and with mixing, those trends are expected to continue,' said Dr. Van Kherkove. (end)
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