The World Health Organisation has said in a statement that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is “nowhere near over.” The statement comes in the wake of the rising number of cases, which has increased worldwide by 30 percent in the last two weeks.
“I am concerned that cases of Covid-19 continue to rise- putting further pressure on stretched health systems and health workers. I am also concerned about the increasing trend of deaths,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists on Tuesday, July 12.
According to the executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, the recent increase in the number of newly reported Covid-19 cases has been largely driven by Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. The situation is worsened by the lifting of public health and social measures worldwide. Recent changes in testing policies have also been hindering the detection of new cases and the monitoring of the evolution of the virus.
On Friday, July 8, the WHO Emergency Committee concluded that the virus remains a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) and warned of several interconnected challenges.
“New waves of the virus demonstrate again that Covid-19 is nowhere near over, and the virus is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity,” Tedros said.
He urged governments to deploy tried and tested measures like masking, improved ventilation, and test and treatment protocols, while regularly reviewing and adjusting Covid-19 response plans based on the current epidemiology and also the potential for new variants to appear.
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