The delta version is dangerous and continues to evolve and change: WHO chief.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that the COVID-19 is in a very “dangerous phase” of the pandemic, complicated by more permeable forms such as Delta, which are evolving and mutating.
He said that in countries with low vaccination coverage, horrific scenes of hospital overflow are becoming the norm again.
“Like Delta, which is fast becoming a major stress in many countries, we are in a very dangerous phase of this pandemic,” Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing on Friday.
“But no country is out of the woods yet. The delta variant is dangerous and is constantly evolving and mutating, requiring constant evaluation and careful adjustment of the public health response,” he said.
Noting that the delta variant has been detected in at least 98 countries and is spreading rapidly in countries with low and high vaccination coverage, he said there are essentially two ways to push countries back against the new surge. .
“Public health and social measures such as robust surveillance, strategic testing, early case detection, isolation and clinical care are important,” he said, adding that masking, physical distancing, avoiding crowded places and indoor Keeping the areas well ventilated is the basis of the response. .
Ghebreyesus emphasized that the world should equitably share protective gear, oxygen, testing, treatments and vaccines and stressed that he urged world leaders to work together to ensure Maybe by this time next year, every country has 70 percent of all people. Vaccinated.
“It is the best way to slow the pandemic, save lives, truly drive global economic recovery and prevent further dangerous forms from having the upper hand. By the end of this September, we are calling on leaders to vaccinate all At least 10 percent of the people in the countries,” he said.
As new manufacturing hubs – including mRNA vaccines – are being developed, the WHO chief said this could be accelerated by openly sharing technology and information by companies.
“Specifically, I urge those companies—BioNtech, Pfizer and Moderna—to share their knowledge so that we can accelerate the development of new production. The sooner we start building more vaccine hubs and ramping up global vaccine capacity, the sooner we can reduce the rise in fatalities,” he said.
The WHO had said that the delta variant, which was first detected in India, is now being reported in about 100 countries, which is “potentially underestimated” and that the highly transmissible strain is rapidly outnumbering and coming to the other variants. It is expected to take effect globally in the coming months. Week.
The COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update published by the WHO states that as of June 29, 2021, “96 countries have reported cases of the delta variant, although this is unlikely because the sequencing capacity required to identify the variants is limited.” Many of these countries are responsible for this type of infection and hospitalization.”
It said that given the increase in transmissibility, the delta variant is “expected to rapidly outpace other variants and become the flagship version in the coming months.”
The WHO notes that the tools that exist today to combat the coronavirus—including individual, community levels—public health and social measures, infection prevention and control measures that have been used since the beginning of the pandemic—are concerned Are effective against existing forms of the drug, including the Delta variant.
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