Global data shows a rising phenomenon in Covid-19 cases. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that the surging Covid cases could be an indication of a much bigger problem as some countries have also reported a significant reduction in the Covid testing rates.
The World Health Organization went on to warn the countries worldwide to remain vigilant against the virus.
After over a month of witnessing decline in the cases, it began to move upwards in the last week, indicating an increase, the World Health Organization said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing on Wednesday that a global rise in Covid-19 cases could be the tip of the iceberg as some countries have reported a reduction in testing rates.
He further added that the continued local outbreaks and spikes should be expected, especially in the areas where the measures to control and prevent transmission have been lifted.
The WHO said that combinations of factors were causing the increase, which includes the highly transmissible Omicron variant and its BA.2 sublineage, which gets aided by the lifting of public health and social measures.
WHO said that the cases are on the rise, especially in certain parts of Asia and urged for the vaccination drive to be extended. The World Health Organization warned that caution needs to be exercised in lifting the measures in place for pandemic response.
As per Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, over 11 million cases have been reported to WHO just in the last week, which is around 8 percent increase over the previous week.
One major factor to push up the number of cases has been misinformation, such as, that Omicron is mild and the pandemic is over, she further added.
According to Mike Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organization Health Emergencies Program, the covid virus will “wax and wane,” as “it has not settled down into a purely, seasonal or predictable pattern as yet”.
He added that we need to be extremely cautious. We need to watch this very carefully and we need to focus on getting the most vulnerable appropriately vaccinated. And we need to do that as quickly as possible in every country.
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