According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are some ‘misinformations’ circulating about Omicron BA.2 that are causing widespread misunderstandings. The virus is producing an unprecedented number of COVID infections around the world, making the WHO concerned. A global rise of 8% in new infections last week prompted the warning. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s COVID-19 Technical Lead, noted earlier this week that a lot of misinformation exists.
‘We have huge amounts of misinformation that’s out there. The misinformation that Omicron is mild. Misinformation that the pandemic is over. Misinformation that this is the last variant that we will have to deal with. This is really causing a lot of confusion,’ Kerkhove said.
?@WHO updates on the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last week we saw an 8% increases in cases detected with more than 11 million reported, despite a significant reduction of testing occurring worldwide @mvankerkhove pic.twitter.com/IkjZEKMCQ3
— Cleavon MD ? ? ? (@Cleavon_MD) March 18, 2022
As WHO’s Mike Ryan says, ‘the virus has not yet ‘settled down’ into a purely seasonal or predictable pattern. Rather, it is moving around rapidly, and in the context of waning immunity and vaccines that do not completely protect people against this disease, the virus will likely continue to spread around the world. That is how viruses work. They establish themselves in a community, and they move quickly to the next unprotected community’.
In WHO’s weekly report on the pandemic, over 11 million new cases of COVID-19 were reported and over 43,000 new deaths occurred, an increase of around 8%. Worldwide, the number of deaths caused by COVID-19 has been decreasing for the past three weeks.
Post Your Comments