"Tsunami" Of New Covid Cases Overwhelming Global Health Systems: WHO Chief
NDTV
Addressing a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned that while the Omicron variant appears to be less severe compared to Delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorised as 'mild'.
A record 9.5 million new COVID-19 cases were reported around the world during the week December 27-January 2, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday, with its chief warning that the "tsunami of cases" caused by the new Omicron variant was overwhelming health systems around the world.
The COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update, released by the global health agency Thursday, said that during the week December 27, 2021 to January 2, 2022, following a gradual increase since October, the global number of new cases increased sharply by 71 per cent as compared to the previous week.
The number of new deaths decreased by 10 per cent. This corresponds to just under 9.5 million new cases and over 41,000 new deaths reported during the last week. As of January 2, a total of nearly 289 million cases and over 5.4 million deaths have been reported globally, the update said.
"Last week, the highest number of COVID-19 cases were reported so far in the pandemic. And we know, for certain, that this is an underestimate of cases because reported numbers do not reflect the backlog of testing around the holidays, the number of positive self-tests not registered, and burdened surveillance systems that miss cases around the word," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
