With 30% jump in Covid cases in two weeks, WHO says pandemic ‘nowhere near over’

Covid pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern, says WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that Covid-19 is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden as sub-variants of Omicron are driving waves of infections and deaths across the globe.

New waves of the virus demonstrate again that the Covid pandemic is “nowhere near over”, WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday, adding that “we must push back”.

Nearly two and a half years after the pandemic brought the world to a grinding halt, Dr Tedros said cases of Covid continued to surge and placed further pressure on thinly-stretched health systems and health workers. He added that the increase in deaths concerned him.