Be prepared for new COVID wave: WHO chief scientist warns amid concerning rise in deaths
Each new COVID variant will be more transmissible & immune evasive- higher numbers infected will translate into greater hospitalizations & sickness, WHO official said
PremiumNoting that each new COVID variant is more transmissible and immune evasive, World Health Organisation chief scientist warned that ‘We need to be prepared for new waves’. This comes at a time when several Omicron variants are circulating at the same time.
“We need to be prepared for these COVID19 waves- each new variant will be more transmissible & immune evasive- higher numbers infected will translate into greater hospitalizations & sickness. All countries must have a data driven plan to quickly respond to changing situations," WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Twitter while sharing a thread by Philip Schellekens, Senior Advisor at World Bank Group. Global development & COVID-19.
Explaining the wrath that new Omicron variants can cause, Schellekens said, “We're seeing a global U-turn in COVID-19 mortality. Following months of decline, it has started to rise again." The reasons for the rise, he points out to properties of BA.5, relaxed attitudes towards infection control, and vaccination lag.
The experts also point out that, US, France, Italy, Germany and Japan are the drivers of the global surge among high-income countries. Brazil, an upper-middle-income country, is front-leading the developing world
The US and Brazil are currently the main contributors to global mortality, expert adds.
COVID-19 is nowhere near over: WHO chief
In the last two weeks, cases of COVID-19 reported to WHO surged 30%, driven largely by the hugely infectious omicron relatives, BA.4 and BA.5. The two omicron subvariants have shown a worrisome ability to re-infect people previously vaccinated or who have recovered from COVID.
Sounding a warning, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic still qualifies as a global emergency and he was “concerned" about the recent spike.
“The virus is running freely, and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden," he said during a Tuesday press briefing. “New waves of the virus demonstrate again that COVID-19 is nowhere near over."
"I am concerned that cases of COVID-19 continue to rise - putting further pressure on stretched health systems and health workers - and deaths are unacceptably high," said Dr Tedros.
He urged governments to regularly review and adjust their COVID19 response plans based on the current epidemiology and also the potential for new variants to appear.
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