Covid pandemic ‘nowhere near over’
Warns WHO chief as France, Germany post record cases; UK PM drops curbs
The World Health Organization has warned that the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, as France, Germany and Brazil posted new infection records in the past 24 hours.
The highly-transmissible Omicron strain has spread unabated around the world, pushing some governments to impose fresh measures while speeding up the rollout of vaccine booster shots,
WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday told reporters at its Geneva headquarters.
The UN health chief warned against dismissing Omicron as mild. "Omicron may be less severe, on average, but the narrative that it is a mild disease is misleading," he said.
In US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday advised against travel to 22 nations and territories because of a rising number of Covid-19 cases, including for Israel, Australia, Egypt, Albania, Argentina and Uruguay.
Top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said on Monday that it's still too early to predict whether Omicron's rapid spread will help push coronavirus from the pandemic phase to a more manageable endemic phase -- but "I would hope that that's the case."
In England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday that people will no longer be required to wear face masks anywhere or work from home from next week, adding that scientists believed a wave of the Omicron coronavirus variant had peaked nationally, reports Reuters.
India reported new infections at an eight-month high and a government scientist warned it will take weeks before data on hospitalisations and deaths will show how severe the latest wave driven by the Omicron variant will be.