Covid is nowhere near over, warns WHO chief amid spike in cases

World Health Organization's chief on Tuesday pointed out that Fresh waves of Covid-19 cases show that the pandemic is "nowhere near over".

"New waves of the virus demonstrate again that Covid-19 is nowhere near over," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference, adding: "As the virus pushes at us, we must push back."

In a media briefing on COVID-19, the WHO chief said, "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."

Tedros suggested that governments should regularly review and adjust their COVID19 response plans based on the current epidemiology and also the potential for new variants to appear. "Governments should also work to reverse the reduction in surveillance, testing and sequencing, and share anti-virals effectively"

Pointing out the importance of fighting the vaccine, the WHO chief said, "Vaccines have saved millions of lives and it’s important for governments to focus on boosting those most at-risk communities, finding the unvaccinated so as to build up the wall of immunity toward the 70% vaccination target."

"Planning & tackling COVID19 should also go hand-in-hand with vaccinating for killer diseases like measles, pneumonia & diarrhea. It’s not a question of either/or, it’s possible to do both. And new vaccines, including HPV and malaria, should continue to be introduced," WHO chief said

Europe is the centre of new wave

Europe is at the center of a new wave of cases driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron sub-variants as people attend large gatherings and resume traveling after two years of staying close to home.

In England, an estimated 2.1 million people, or one in 25, tested positive in the final week of June, according to the Office for National Statistics. People can be infected even if they have had Covid previously, but vaccination does help to protect against serious illness.

The WHO is worried that even as cases rise again, surveillance of the virus and new potential variants is on the decline.

Tedros said that a WHO committee reiterated that Covid-19 remains a public health emergency of international concern -- the way the global health organization classifies a pandemic.