(Geneva) The number of new coronavirus cases increased by 18% last week, with more than 4.1 million cases reported worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Posted at 8:43 a.m.
The UN health agency said in its latest weekly pandemic report that the global death toll remained relatively comparable to the previous week, at around 8,500. COVID-related deaths increased in three regions: the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Americas.
The largest weekly increase in new COVID-19 cases was seen in the Middle East, where they rose 47%, according to the report released Wednesday evening. Infections rose by around 32% in Europe and Southeast Asia, and by around 14% in the Americas, the WHO said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said cases were on the rise in 110 countries, mainly due to Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants.
“This pandemic is changing, but it’s not over,” Mr. Tedros said this week during a press briefing. He added that the ability to track the genetic evolution of COVID-19 was “under threat” as countries relaxed surveillance and genetic sequencing efforts, warning that it would be more difficult to catch new and emerging variants. potentially dangerous.
He called on countries to immunize their most vulnerable populations, including healthcare workers and people over the age of 60, saying hundreds of millions of people are still unvaccinated and at risk of serious illness and disease. to die.
Mr. Tedros pointed out that while more than 1.2 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide, the average vaccination rate in poor countries is around 13%.
“If rich countries vaccinate children as young as 6 months and plan to offer further rounds of vaccination, it is incomprehensible to suggest that low-income countries should not vaccinate and boost their most-at-risk (people) “, did he declare.
According to figures compiled by Oxfam and the People’s Vaccine Alliance, less than half of the 2.1 billion vaccines promised to the poorest countries by the major Group of Seven economies have been delivered.
Earlier this month, the United States authorized COVID-19 vaccines for infants and preschoolers, rolling out a nationwide vaccination plan targeting 18 million of the youngest children. US regulators have also recommended that some adults receive booster doses adjusted to the latest coronavirus variants in the fall.