At a press conference on Tuesday, the WHO chief said Omicron sub-variants such as BA.4 and BA.5 continue to cause waves of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths around the world.
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“The virus is running free and countries are not effectively managing the burden of the disease,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference from Geneva, Switzerland. “The new waves of the virus prove again that COVID-19 is far from over,” he added. The spread of BA.5, which is now the dominant version of the virus worldwide, is a concern because it has a developmental advantage over other Omicron subtypes, said WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove. Story continues below ad “The virus is spreading very rapidly globally and our ability to detect cases has decreased since surveillance strategies have changed,” he told reporters. 2:08 Uptick in Omicron cases this summer likely means more hospitalizations. WHO has seen a significant increase in BA.5 case reports in the past four weeks alone, Van Kerkhove said, adding that the trend is expected to continue around the world. Trending Stories
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The agency is also aware of reports of reinfection, but has no subline details. WHO started monitoring BA.4 and BA.5 in mid-April. They were first identified in January 2022 and are in addition to Omicron’s previously discovered BA.1 and BA.2 subvariants. Meanwhile, the international COVID-19 emergency committee met on Friday and concluded that COVID-19 remains a public health emergency of international concern. Story continues below ad In a statement on Tuesday, the panel, made up of independent experts, said rising cases, the continued evolution of the virus and pressure on health services in some countries meant the situation remained an emergency.
Read more: 17 million Canadians took Omicron in 5 months, new federal report says
Cases of COVID-19 reported to the WHO had increased by 30 percent in the past two weeks, although increased population immunity, mainly from vaccines, had seen a “decoupling” of cases from hospitalizations and deaths, the panel’s statement said . Public Health Canada expects more cases in the coming months due to increases in Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 subclasses, according to its June 30 statement. Some sobering data from Canada’s Immunity Task Force on COVID-19 released last week showed how quickly the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and its sub-variants spread across the country in late 2021 and the first months of this year . An analysis of data from blood tests showed that 17 million Canadians were infected in just five months, between December 2021 and May 2022. — with files from Tim Sargent of Global News and Reuters © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
