New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday (January 18, 2022) that omicron is spreading around the world and said that while this version of COVID-19 is ‘mild’, it is ‘misleading’.
Addressing a media briefing on COVID-19, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus informed that more than 18 million cases were registered last week.
“The death toll remains stable for the time being, but we remain concerned about the impact of Omicron on already exhausted healthcare workers and health systems,” he said.
Ghebreyesus said that in some countries, coronavirus cases are peaking, which gives hope that the worst of this latest wave is over, “but no country is out of the woods yet”.
“I am particularly concerned about many countries that have low vaccination rates, because people are at many times higher risk of serious illness and death than if they were unvaccinated,” he expressed.
Omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths
The WHO chief said the omicron could be less severe, on average, but ‘the narrative that it is a mild disease is misleading’, harming the overall response and costing more lives.
“Make no mistake, Omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths, and even less severe cases are affecting health facilities,” he said.
Ghebreyesus said the virus was spreading ‘very rapidly’ and many were still vulnerable.
Omicron continues to sweep. I worry about countries with low vaccination rates, because those without vaccinations are at manifold risk of serious illness and death. I urge everyone to do everything possible to help reduce the risk of infection and take the pressure off health systems. pic.twitter.com/CymL7Vxvel
“Make no mistake, Omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths, and even less severe cases are flooding health facilities” –@Dr Tedros#COVID-19https://t.co/6a45sDbloJ
The WHO Director-General warned that the pandemic is nowhere to be found and with the incredible growth of omicrons globally, new forms are likely to emerge, which is why tracking and evaluation are critical.
He said the COVID-19 vaccines may be less effective at preventing infection and transmission of omicrons than they were for previous variants, but they are still exceptionally good at preventing serious illness and death.
“Newer formulations of the vaccines are being developed and evaluated to see how they perform against Omicron and other strains,” he said.
Ghebreyesus said we need to make sure we share existing vaccines equitably and that we develop manufacturing distributed around the world.
“We can defeat this virus only if we work together and share health equipment equally. It really is that simple,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to the WHO’s weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 globally, the number of new cases increased in the last week (10-16 January 2022), while the number of new deaths remained the same as the previous week.
In the six WHO regions, more than 18 million new cases were reported this week, a 20% increase from the previous week. More than 45,000 new deaths were also recorded.
The South-East Asia region reported the biggest increase in new cases last week (145%), followed by the Eastern Mediterranean region (68%). New weekly deaths increased in the Southeast Asia region (12%) and the Americas region (7%), while other regions remained the same as last week.
As of January 16, there have been more than 323 million confirmed cases and over 5.5 million deaths worldwide.
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