BERLIN â The COVID-19 pandemic is âmost certainly not over,â the head of the World Health Organization warned Sunday, despite a decline in reported cases since the peak of the omicron wave. He told governments that âwe lower our guard at our peril.â
The U.N. health agencyâs director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told officials gathered in Geneva for opening of the WHOâs annual meeting that âdeclining testing and sequencing means we are blinding ourselves to the evolution of the virus.â He also noted that almost 1 billion people in lower-income countries still havenât been vaccinated.
In a weekly report Thursday on the global situation, WHO said the number of new COVID-19 cases appears to have stabilized after weeks of decline since late March, while the overall number of weekly deaths dropped.
While there has been progress, with 60% of the worldâs population vaccinated, âitâs not over anywhere until itâs over everywhere,â Tedros said.
âReported cases are increasing in almost 70 countries in all regions, and this in a world in which testing rates have plummeted,â he added.
Reported deaths are rising in Africa, the continent with the lowest vaccination coverage, he said, and only 57 countries - almost all of them wealthy - have vaccinated 70% of their people.
While the worldâs vaccine supply has improved, there is âinsufficient political commitment to roll out vaccinesâ in some countries, gaps in âoperational or financial capacityâ in others, he said.
âIn all, we see vaccine hesitancy driven by misinformation and disinformation,â Tedros said. âThe pandemic will not magically disappear, but we can end it.â
Tedros is expected to be appointed for a second five-year term this week at the World Health Assembly, the annual meeting of the WHOâs member countries.
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