GENEVA, July 15 (NNN-TASS) — The world is currently in the early stages of a third wave, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“We are now in the early stages of a third wave,” he said in his opening remarks at the 8th meeting of the IHR Emergency Committee on COVID-19.
The WHO head said that in the past week cases of COVID-19 were increasing globally, and deaths have started to go up again. Moreover, “deaths are increasing again” after 10 weeks of declines, he added.
“The Delta variant is one of the main drivers of the current increase in transmission, fueled by increased social mixing and mobility, and inconsistent use of proven public health and social measures,” he stated.
According to Ghebreyesus, “the Delta variant is now in more than 111 countries,” so the WHO expects “it to soon be the dominant COVID-19 strain circulating worldwide, if it isn’t already.”
The WHO head slammed “a shocking disparity in the global distribution of vaccines”. Meanwhile, lack of access to vaccines leaves most of the world’s population “at the mercy of the virus”, the WHO director general said recalling that “many countries still have not received any vaccines, and most have not received enough”.
Although, Ghebreyesus argued, “COVAX can work, but the scale is still far too small, with just over 100 million doses shipped”.
Meanwhile, nearly 3 mln COVID-19 cases and more than 55,000 deaths were registered this past week worldwide.
The incidence rate rose by 10% compared with the previous seven days, and the mortality rate increased by 3%, the WHO reported.
The overall number of new COVID-19 cases last week (from July 5 to July 11) reached nearly 3 million, some 10% more compared with the previous week, according to the weekly epidemiological bulletin. Over the past week, over 55,000 people died, or 3% more than in the previous seven days. Before that the mortality rate had been declining for more than 2 months.
On July 5-11, as many as 2,996,465 COVID-19 cases were registered worldwide and 55,830 deaths were confirmed. As of July 11, a total of 186,240,393 COVID-19 cases and 4,027,861 deaths were recorded.
Most new COVID-19 cases over the past week were reported in Brazil (333,030), as well as in India (291,789), Indonesia (243,119), the United Kingdom (210, 277) and Colombia (174, 320). The biggest incidence rate was registered in the British Virgin Islands (2,497 new cases per 100,000 citizens), in Seychelles (763), Cyprus (673), Jersey (628) and Fiji (490).
The incidence rate dropped over the past week in the Americas (by 3%), while it increased in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (by 25%), in Europe (by 20%), in Southeast Asia (by 16%), in the Western Pacific Region (by 15%) and in Africa (by 5%).
The mortality rate surged in Africa (by 50%) and in Southeast Asia (by 26%). A notable decline in fatalities was seen in the Americas (11%).
