The number of covid cases has nearly doubled in the past 6 weeks. And in the context of the epidemic, the arrival of a more contagious variant of Omicron 5 is not excluded. This was highlighted by the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during the periodic press briefing. “There are many sub-lineages of the Omicron variant, most notably BA.5 which is the most transmissible detected so far. We have been constantly reiterating that this virus will continue to evolve and we must be ready for whatever it throws at us. It could be a new version of the variants that already exist. we know, or something completely new. We know that for any future variant to become widespread, it will have to be more transmissible than previous variants. But we can’t know how deadly it will be, “he said.
“We will see continuous waves of infection – highlighted the WHO DG – but we need not to see continuous waves of hospitalization and death. We have the tools to save lives: vaccines, tests, therapies and public health tools”.
Current vaccines, Tedros pointed out, “remain highly effective against serious illness and death. The goal in every country must be to vaccinate all health workers, the elderly and all those at greatest risk”. Then, the DG warned, “we will need more vaccines that better protect against infection. And if and when we have them, we cannot afford the same horrible iniquity that tainted the launch of vaccines last year.”
“The global weekly number of reported Covid cases has nearly doubled in the past 6 weeks. Deaths are also on the rise, but not as rapidly as cases for now. However, having more cases means we can expect to see more hospitalizations and deaths. in the coming weeks “, he highlighted.