The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned leaders against relaxing COVID-19 protocols, saying the pandemic is not yet over. WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesusi gave this warning yesterday in Geneva while speaking to journalists, that after declining of the pandemic, there are reports that it has surged globally in the last few days. Ghebreyesus said, especially in some parts of Asia a combination of factors like misinformation that the pandemic was over leading to the lifting of face mask, abolishing social distancing are responsible for the surge in the global index.
In the last week, about 11millions samples were considered where an 8 percent increase was recorded.
According to the WHO DG, “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.
He warned that in places where these protocols have been thrown out, there is the likelihood of a surge in the pandemic.
He disclosed that many countries have reported high mortality rates, especially those places with low vaccination patronage.
He reiterates that “Each country is facing a different situation with different challenges, but the pandemic is not over,”
In her remarks, WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove explained that a combination of factors was responsible for fuelling cases worldwide, beginning with a more transmissible variant.
She disclosed Omicron was still in operation, transmitting on a large scale.
Kerkhove warned that “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,”
The technical team disclosed that in the last 30 days, 99.9 percent of samples taken were returned Omicron and of which 75 percent were BA.2 variants.
Kerkhove in her report revealed that “We do not see an increase in severity with BA.2. However, with huge numbers of cases, you will see increased hospitalizations and we have seen this in country after country,”
She added that another factor could be attributed to relaxing of lifting public health and social measures.
She also acknowledged that it was counterproductive the amount of misinformation being filtered into the public that Omicron is mild, misinformation that the pandemic is over, misinformation that this is the last variant that we will have to deal with,”
In his contribution, Mike Ryan, WHO Executive Director of Health Emergencies Programme informed that meeting that the virus was yet to settle down into a predictable pattern.
He said, “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 warned that the virus is still very fit and may likely echo around the world for the time being he explained.
