A prime scientist on the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday that the world is shifting further away from the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to elements like viral variants, social mixing, the flouting of public well being measures and vaccine inequities.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, epidemiologist and WHO COVID-19 technical lead, famous an 11.5 p.c enhance in world instances over the past week, with a 1 p.c enhance in deaths. Europe noticed a 21 p.c uptick in infections final week, whereas the Western Pacific skilled an almost 30 p.c enhance, as an example. Though information displays a slight dip within the African area, Kerkhove warned Africa is experiencing a excessive stage of instances and an approximate 60 p.c enhance in deaths.
The extremely transmissible Delta variant is the newest of 4 such viral variants of concern beneath surveillance. The variant, detected in not less than 111 international locations, has additionally been blamed for COVID-19 instances rising throughout the US CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Friday warned that the outbreak within the US is turning into “a pandemic of the unvaccinated” as a result of almost all hospital admissions and deaths are amongst those that hadn’t been immunized.
“In the context of virus variants, increased social mobility, social mixing, inappropriate use of public health and social measures and inequitable vaccine distribution, we’re in a very dangerous situation,” Kerkhove mentioned. “It’s becoming more and more challenging and we’re moving further away from the end of this pandemic than we should be at this point in time.”
The feedback comply with the eighth assembly of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee final week, which famous “governments are making increasingly divergent policy decisions that address narrow national needs which inhibit a harmonized approach to the global response,” per a WHO launch.
“The Committee noted that, despite national, regional and global efforts, the pandemic is nowhere near finished,” including that the present state of the pandemic nonetheless wants “a coordinated international response.”
Nearly 1 / 4 of the worldwide inhabitants, or 24.7 p.c, has acquired not less than one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, with over three billion doses administered, the WHO reported as of July 13. Nearly 30 million doses are administered worldwide each day and 1 p.c of folks in low-income international locations have acquired not less than one dose, figures present.
