World Health Organisation (WHO)’s chief scientist said that Covid-19 infections are rising across most regions of the world. As the Delta variant spread WHO officials warned that the pandemic isn’t on the wane.
The official report stated that in few countries vaccination is reducing the tally, large parts of the world face oxygen shortages, a lack of hospital beds and higher mortality. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, one of the WHO’s official Soumya Swaminathan said, “In the last 24 hours, close to 500,000 new cases have been reported and about 9,300 deaths — now that’s not a pandemic that’s slowing down,”
Swaminathan further added, the mortality rates in Africa have increased by 30% to 40% in two weeks. The main reason behind the increases is the fast-spreading delta variant, slow vaccination rollouts globally and the relaxation of safety measures like mask mandates and physical distancing rules.
The WHO requested governments to be careful when reopening so as not to put at risk the gains made. Mike Ryan, the head of the WHO’s health emergencies program, said in a media briefing on Wednesday, “The idea that everyone is protected and it’s kumbaya and everything goes back to normal is a very dangerous assumption right now anywhere in the world,”
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