While much of the world has its eyes riveted on the war in Ukraine, the boss of the World Health Organization (WHO) insisted that the Covid-19 pandemic was “far from over” , during a virtual press briefing in Geneva.
Although the WHO has noted for some time that the number of infections and the number of deaths are falling, "this pandemic is far from over and it will not be over anywhere if it is not over everywhere", underlined Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The organization has noted very strong growth in the Western Pacific region.
In France too, the number of positive cases has been rising for a few days.
Although globally the number of new infections and deaths have however fallen by 5 and 8% respectively, according to the weekly epidemiological report, "the virus continues to evolve and we continue to face major obstacles in the distribution of vaccines, tests and treatments wherever the need is felt,” insisted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
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"The virus continues to spread at far too high an intensity level, while this pandemic is in its third year," said Maria Van Kerkhove, who is leading the fight against Covid-19 at the WHO.
“Although we are seeing downward trends, we still listed 10 million confirmed cases globally last week,” she recalled.
"We must remain vigilant," she warned, at a time when many countries - in Europe in particular or in the United States - have abandoned most of the health restrictions intended to control the disease.
Lack of visibility on the virus
The tests – which make it possible to detect new variants – are also a source of concern for the WHO, its boss noting that “several countries have drastically reduced their tests”.
“It prevents us from seeing where the virus is, how it is spreading and how it is changing,” he warned.
The testing strategy in South Africa had in fact made it possible to detect the Omicron variant very quickly at the end of November 2021, which is today ultra-dominant.
“This Friday will mark two years since we said that the Covid-19 spreading around the world could be qualified as a pandemic”, also recalled doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
He did not fail to recall that six weeks earlier, "when there were only 100 cases recorded outside of China and no deaths", he had triggered the highest level of health alert in the WHO - a public health emergency of international concern.
But this qualification had not struck the spirits and the organization was later criticized for having taken too long to take the measure of the disaster to come.
“Two years later, more than 6 million people have died,” he recalled.
