Head of World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has recently stated that the COVID-19 pandemic is changing but it is not completely over yet. He warned about cases constantly rising in 110 countries and are on a surge owing to the two fast sub-variants of Omicron.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently stated that the rapidly transmitting sub-variants of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 are expected to be the reason for half of the COVID-19 cases recorded in the United States.

BA.5 accounted for 36.6% of the total COVID-19 cases in the U.S on 25^th June; while BA.4 accounted for around 15.7%, making up around 52% of the new cases in the country.

The WHO head said that cases are on a rise, propelled by the variant BA.5 and BA.4 in many places, leading to an increase in overall cases by 20% and the deaths have also increased in three out of six WHO regions, even if the numbers of cases recorded remain stable.

He further cautioned that the pandemic may be changing but is not over yet. Progress has been made over a while but has been unable to vanish the virus.

The capability of tracking the virus is ‘under threat’ as the genomic sequences is declining, making it challenging to track Omicron and evaluate future developing variants.

The WHO chief has also raised his concern over the slow-moving vaccination programs in lower-income countries, making citizens of those nations more susceptible to the future waves which may emerge in the coming time.

He further said that the world is at the mid-point of the year, and the WHO has rolled out an action for countries to vaccinate around 70% of their population.

He added that in the last 18 months, more than 12 billion vaccines had been supplied around the globe, and around 75% of the world’s healthcare professionals and people over 60 have been vaccinated.

Source Credit – https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/story/pandemic-who-covid-cases-rise-110-countries-corornavirus-vaccines-omicron-1968371-2022-06-30