GENEVA: Fresh waves of Covid infections show the pandemic is "nowhere near over", the World Health Organisation’s chief warned on Tuesday, voicing concern the virus is "running freely".
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he feared the number of cases was still rising, putting further pressure on overstretched health systems and workers. "New waves of the virus show once again that Covid-19 is far from over," he told a news conference, adding: "As the virus pushes us, we have to push."
"The virus is spreading freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity, both in terms of acute hospitalizations and the expanding number of people with a post-Covid condition, often referred to as Long Covid," he said. .
"As Covid-19 transmission and hospitalizations increase, governments must also implement proven measures such as masking, better ventilation and testing and treatment protocols," insisted Tedros.
The WHO's emergency committee on Covid-19 met via video conference on Friday and decided that the pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern - the highest alert the WHO can issue.
WHO Emergencies Director Michael Ryan told the meeting that global Covid cases reported to the WHO had increased by 30 percent in the past two weeks, largely due to the Omicron BA.4, BA.5 subvariants and the lifting of public health and social measures. Ryan said recent changes in testing policies have hindered case detection and tracking the evolution of the virus.
The committee stressed the need to limit the transmission of the virus because the consequences of a pandemic caused by the new respiratory virus will not be fully understood, the WHO said in a statement on Monday. The group expressed concern about the sharp reduction in testing, resulting in reduced surveillance and genome sequencing.
"The virus is spreading freely," the World Health Organization warns, as the latest omicron offshoots increase coronavirus infections around the world.
Many countries have lifted restrictions and reduced coronavirus surveillance as they grapple with pandemic fatigue. But "new waves of the virus show once again that covid-19 is far from over," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
On Tuesday, he appealed to governments to put efforts back into testing and improving vaccine rollout, saying rising cases were straining medical systems already stretched by the pandemic.
The WHO's call for action echoed the concerns of US health officials, who urged Americans on Tuesday to take precautions against reinfection and serious illness. Biden administration officials are trying to contain the spread with vaccinations, antivirals and testing as they develop a plan to offer all adults a second booster shot.
Federal data show that the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants account for about 80 percent of the circulating coronavirus in the United States, where 67 percent of people have been fully vaccinated.
Biden officials are pushing to offer a second booster dose to all adults
Britain, which has vaccinated much of the population and lifted all coronavirus restrictions, including masking and requiring those who test positive to self-quarantine, is also facing a wave of the virus. According to the latest government statistics, 1 in 25 people in Britain had covid-19 in the week ending June 29.
The country now allows a second booster dose for people over 75 and others with weakened immune systems.
The surge in the virus in Europe prompted health regulators on the continent to recommend a second booster this week for high-risk groups as part of efforts to combat sub-variants.
As the BA.5 variant spreads, the risk of re-infection with the coronavirus increases
"A new wave of COVID-19 is rising across the European Union," the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said on Monday. He called on governments to prepare "for another expected wave in the autumn and winter season".
In China, the arrival of the BA.5 sub-variant has sparked fears of a return to quarantine in Shanghai, where many residents have just emerged from two months of house arrest.
Health experts say the spread of variants highlights the need to immunize populations that remain unprotected due to vaccine apathy or inequitable access. More than 12 billion coronavirus injections have been administered worldwide, but only about 19 percent of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, according to Our World in Data.
At a briefing on Tuesday, the WHO director-general also said countries were "ineffectively managing ... the growing number of people" with prolonged covid - which refers to persistent or new health problems that appear at least four weeks after infection.
While vaccines and other health tools put the world in a better position than in the early days of the pandemic, "we should not take them for granted," Tedros said. "As the virus pushes us, we have to push back."
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