Covid 4th wave: WHO warns about rising cases, says we may fail in the next phase of pandemic
The rising number of Covid-19 cases in various countries across the globe have once again led the World Health Organisation (WHO) to warn everyone about the ill effects of overlooking Covid necessary protocols.
As new variants are coming into discovery, the WHO has said that it is extremely important for all to get vaccinated against the virus.
The organisation has urged all people to remain vigilant and continue all efforts to stop the virus from circulating. The situation has become more serious ever since South African scientists detected Omicron BA.4 and BA.5. Many other parts of the world have spotted various kinds of recombinant viruses.
Recently, a WHO health official spoke about the dire need to act wisely during a press conference. He said that if we want to protect our future, we must deal with the present.
“If we fail now, at the last lap, fail to get everyone vaccinated, fail to continue diagnosis, fail to find people who might benefit from treatment, then we will completely fail in the next pandemic”, he said.
Notably, the WHO had recently highlighted that the virus is still circulating and the risk of emergence of more deadly variants is still there.
As per the agency, “there is a high risk of another wave of new COVID infections” as winters are approaching for the Southern Hemisphere countries. This is because Covid-19 is known to spread easily in cooler temperatures as people are more likely to gather in larger numbers indoors.
Giving further details about the increasing risk, WHO’s Africa Director – Dr. Matshidisho Moeti said, “With the virus still circulating, the risk of new and potentially more deadly variants emerging remains, and the pandemic control measures are pivotal to effective response to a surge in infections.”
As mentioned by the WHO, coronavirus cases and deaths in Africa have dropped to their lowest levels since the beginning of the pandemic. The report released on April 14 stated that following Omicron surge, Covid cases had “tanked” from 3,08,000 weekly infections to less than 20,000 in the last week.
Notably, scientists in the US have warned that the country is likely to witness a wave of cases pertaining to the fast-spreading Omicron subvariant BA.2.
With the Covid cases now marking a peak across Europe, the country will soon hit the mark of about one million deaths due to Covid.