WHO: ‘Consistent Evidence’ Of Omicron’s Spread Vs Delta
UN News – There is now “consistent evidence” that the Omicron variant is outpacing Delta, as COVID-19 continues to account for around 50,000 deaths worldwide every week, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday.
2021-12-21 16:43:12 - VI News Staff
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists at WHO Headquarters in Geneva that it was also more likely that people who have been vaccinated or recovered from the virus, could be infected, or reinfected.
“There can be no doubt that increased social mixing over the holiday period in many countries will lead to increased cases, overwhelmed health systems and more deaths”, he said. “All of us are sick of this pandemic. All of us want to spend time with friends and family. All of us want to get back to normal.
“The fastest way to do that is for all of us – leaders and individuals – to make the difficult decisions that must be made to protect ourselves and others.”
Cancel Culture
He said delaying or cancelling events, was the responsible thing to do: “An event cancelled is better than a life cancelled. It’s better to cancel now and celebrate later than to celebrate now and grieve later.”
More than 3.3 million people have lost their lives to COVID-19 this year – more deaths than from HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined in 2020, and Africa is now facing a steep wave of infections, driven largely by the Omicron variant.
Just a month ago, Africa was reporting its lowest number of cases in 18 months, Tedros reminded reporters, whereas last week, it reported the fourth-highest number of cases in a single week so far.
“None of us wants to be here again in 12 months’ time, talking about missed opportunities, continued inequity, or new variants”, he said, hammering home once again, that for the pandemic to end in 2022, “we must end inequity, by ensuring 70% of the population of every country is vaccinated by the middle of next year.”
World View
Around the world, WHO is working with countries to restore and sustain essential health services disrupted by the pandemic, said Tedros, and according to new data released this year, 23 million children missed out on routine vaccines in 2020, the largest number in over a decade, increasing risks from preventable diseases like measles and polio.
Progress is still being made in many other areas of healthcare and medicine. Five countries were able to introduce the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) to prevent cervical cancer, and a further 9 are planning to introduce it over the next 6 months, and in September, WHO launched a global road map to defeat meningitis by 2030.
The pandemic has also caused setbacks in the agency’s efforts to defeat the world’s leading infectious diseases, with an estimated 14 million more malaria cases and 47 thousand more malaria deaths in 2020, compared to 2019.
“However, WHO certified two countries – China and El Salvador – as malaria-free this year, and a further 25 are on track to end malaria transmission by 2025”, he reminded journalists, and this year, WHO also made a historic recommendation for broad use of the world’s first malaria vaccine.