RT: Maria Van Kerkhove, Head a.i. Emerging Diseases and Zoonosis on the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks throughout a information convention on the scenario of the coronavirus on the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, January 29, 2020.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
The World Health Organization on Thursday warned that it’s struggling to establish and monitor new Covid variants as governments roll again testing and surveillance, threatening the progress made within the combat in opposition to the virus.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, stated virus remains to be circulating at an “incredibly intense level” around the globe. The WHO is “deeply concerned” that it’s evolving at a time when there isn’t a longer sturdy testing in place to assist quickly establish new variants, Van Kerkhove stated.
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“Our ability to track variants and subvariants around the world is diminishing because surveillance is declining,” Van Kerkhove informed reporters throughout an replace in Geneva. “That limits our ability to assess the known variants and subvariants but also our ability to track and identify new ones.”
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday warned there’s the “ever present risk of more dangerous variants emerging” because the virus continues to unfold and alter. Tedros stated “the pandemic is not over but the end is in sight,” contradicting U.S. President Joe Biden’s assertion earlier this week that the pandemic had ended.
“We have spent two-and-a-half years in a long dark tunnel and we’re just beginning to glimpse the light at the end of that tunnel, but it’s still a long way off and the tunnel is still dark with many obstacles that could trip us up if we don’t take care,” Tedros stated.
The WHO is at the moment monitoring about 200 omicron sublineages, Van Kerkhove stated. The world well being physique is preserving a detailed eye on omicron BA.2.75, BF.7, and BA.4.6 amongst different subvariants, she stated. Those variants have began to realize a foothold in international locations such because the U.S. the place omicron BA.5, the quickest spreading variant but, has been dominant for months.
Health authorities nonetheless aren’t capable of precisely predict how massive Covid surges shall be from season to season, Van Kerkhove stated. Some public well being specialists consider the virus will ultimately behave just like the flu, the place there are manageable waves of an infection through the fall and winter months.
“We don’t yet have predictability with SARS-CoV-2 like we have other types of pathogens where we expect a seasonality. We may get there, but we’re not there that. That’s the message — we’re not there yet,” Van Kerkhove stated.
Though the longer term is unsure, Tedros stated the world is in a considerably higher place in contrast with every other level within the pandemic. Two-thirds of the world’s inhabitants is vaccinated, together with three-quarters of well being care employees and older individuals, he stated
Weekly Covid deaths have continued to say no dramatically throughout all areas of the world and at the moment are 10% of the pandemic’s peak in January 2021, in accordance with WHO information. More than 9,800 individuals died from Covid through the week ending Sept. 18, down 17% from the prior week.
“We are in a significantly better position than we have ever been. In most countries restrictions have ended and life looks much like it did before the pandemic,” Tedros stated. “But 10,000 deaths a week is 10,000 too many when most of these deaths could be prevented.”
Source: www.cnbc.com”