Nowhere near over

“Nowhere near over,” is how the Director- General of the World Health Organization ( WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the pandemic at a media briefing this week, going on to say that with the “incredible” growth of Omicron, new variants are likely to emerge.

He said that more than 18 million cases were reported last week, so no country is out of the woods yet. “I remain particularly concerned about many countries that have low vaccination rates, as people are many times more at risk of severe illness and death if they’re unvaccinated.”

Omicron may be less severe, but for the WHO Chief “the narrative that it is mild disease is misleading, hurts the overall response and costs more lives. Make no mistake, Omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths and even the less severe cases are inundating health facilities”.