He also said that “diseases do not respect borders” and that the highly transmissible Omicron showed that “any sense of security can change from one moment to another.”
In its weekly epidemiological report, the WHO said last night that cases fell 17% during the last week in the world compared to the previous week, including a 50% drop in the United States, while deaths decreased 7%.
“Depending on where you live, it might feel like the Covid-19 pandemic is almost over or it might feel like it’s at its worst. But wherever you live, Covid-19 isn’t over”Tedros said.
“We know that this virus is going to continue to change, but we are not defenseless. We have the tools to prevent this disease, diagnose it and treat it,” he added, according to the Europa Press news agency.
In its epidemiological report, the WHO said the new variant is increasingly dominant and accounts for nearly 97% of all recorded cases, while just over 3% of cases were the Delta variant.
“The prevalence of the Omicron variant has increased globally and is now detected in almost all countries,” he said.
“However, many of the countries that reported an early increase in the number of cases due to the Omicron variant have now reported a decrease in the total number of new cases since the beginning of January 2022,” it added.
In total, the Organization recorded more than 19 million new cases of coronavirus and less than 68,000 new deaths during the week of January 31 to February 6.
As with all such counts, experts say these figures are believed to grossly underestimate the actual numbers.
Case counts fell in each of the six WHO regions, except for the Eastern Mediterranean area, where a 36% increase was recorded, notably with increases in Afghanistan, Iran and Jordan.
In Europe, case counts fell 7%, led by declines in France and Germany, even as Eastern European countries such as Azerbaijan, Belarus and Russia posted increases.
In the Americas, the case count fell 36%, with the United States, which remains the hardest-hit country, reporting 1.87 million new cases, down 50% from the previous week.
The agency said booster doses raise estimates of vaccine effectiveness to more than 75% for all vaccines for which data is available, although rates fell between three and six months after injection.
Source: Ambito
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