While the number of cases is increasing rapidly all over the world with the effect of the Omicron variant, new explanations for the variant continue to come every day. Finally, the World Health Organization, which made a statement that the reminder doses were not sustainable the other day, stated that the variant being referred to as ‘less severe’ today does not mean that the variant is not lethal.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced at the press conference held at the headquarters in Geneva that 15 million new cases were reported to WHO in the past week alone. This number set a record as the highest weekly global number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
We should not accept the death figures
Ghebreyesus emphasized that although Omicron causes less severe diseases compared to Delta, it still poses a danger. Stating that the number of deaths per week is almost 50 thousand and this is too much, Ghebreyesus said, “Learning to live with the virus should not mean that we will accept these death figures. ” he said.
WHO Director-General Ghebreyesus reminded that 40% of the population in 90 countries is still not vaccinated against COVID-19, and stated that it is not possible to effectively combat the epidemic without closing the gap in vaccinations. Then he reminded again that the priority is on the first dose of vaccinations rather than the booster dose, and said that the vast majority of those hospitalized were unvaccinated.
If precautions are not taken, higher case numbers will be seen in the coming weeks:
Making a statement at the meeting, Maria Van Kerkhove, the leader of the WHO’s fight against COVID-19 team, stated that if we continue in the same way, we will continue to see more cases in the coming days. Kerkhove’s statement was as follows:
“We’re seeing the Omicron variant spread very effectively among humans. We will see higher case numbers in the coming weeks if we allow this variant to spread in its current form. Currently, we are not in a position to prevent all transmissions, but we can limit the spread of the virus. We can also reduce the high number of cases that are currently emerging. We can reduce the severity of COVID-19 with vaccines. ”
Kerkhove concluded his words with the warning, “Although Omicron is less severe than the Delta variant, it still hospitalizes and kills people.”
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