Back'Worrying sign': Global Covid-19 deaths rise again after 6 weeks, says WHO
Southeast Asia registered a 49% week-to-week jump in confirmed cases, with India taking the bulk of the riseWHO's Western Pacific region reported a 29% rise largely fuelled by the Philippines
PremiumThe weekly global count of Covid-19 deaths is rising again after six weeks of decline, said a top World Health Organisation expert on the coronavirus pandemic.
The technical lead on Covid-19 at the UN health agency, Maria Van Kerkhove, said on Monday that in a "worrying sign", the growth followed a fifth straight of confirmed cases across the globe.
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She said the number of reported cases went up in four of the WHO's six regions, though there were significant variations within each region.
"In the last week, cases have increased by 8%," Van Kerkhove told reporters. "In Europe, that is 12% -- and that's driven by several countries."
The increase is in part due to the spread of a variant that first emerged in Britain and is now circulating in many other places, including eastern Europe, she said.
Southeast Asia registered a 49% week-to-week jump in confirmed cases, with India taking the bulk of the rise. Another hotspot was Western Pacific, with the Philippines and Papua New Guinea accounting for most of the 29% increase.
WHO's Western Pacific region reported a 29% rise largely fuelled by the Philippines, Van Kerkhove said.
The eastern Mediterranean region saw cases rise by 8%, while the number of cases reported in the Americas and Africa declined.
"I do want to mention that it had been about six weeks where we were seeing decreases in deaths," said Van Kerkhove. "And in the last week, we've started to see a slight increase in deaths across the world, and this is to be expected if we are to see increasing cases. But this is also a worrying sign."
WHO emergencies chief Dr Michael Ryan acknowledged an urge among the public in many places to emerge from pandemic restrictions.
He insisted that any easing should coincide with measures such as strict case surveillance and high levels of vaccination, but said vaccines alone would not be enough.
"I'm afraid we're all trying to grasp at straws. We're trying to find the golden solution: So we just get enough vaccine and we push enough vaccine to people and that's going to take care of it," he said. "I'm sorry, it's not."
Vaccine iniquity
Meanwhile, the gap in vaccine procurement between richer and poorer countries "is growing every single day," warned Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, at Monday's press conference.
Ryan echoed the sentiment and said that the "inequitable" Covid-19 vaccine distribution was a "catastrophic moral failure" and a "failed opportunity."
"It is not only a catastrophic moral failure, but it is (also) an epidemiologic failure," he said.
With inputs from agencies.
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