WHO warns of “tsunami of cases” from omicron and delta variables

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The World Health Organization has warned of a “tsunami of cases” for Covid-19 worldwide, with some countries, including France and the United States, reporting record infection rates.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, used the tidal wave analogy to describe how the high susceptibility of the Omicron coronavirus variant adds to the current circulation of the Delta strain.

“This will continue to put enormous pressure on overworked health workers and health systems on the brink of collapse, disrupting lives and livelihoods once again,” Tedros told reporters as the health authority marked the second anniversary of the emergence of Covid-19. .

WHO officials note that preliminary studies from several countries have shown that the Omicron variant driving the increase has led to less serious outcomes than previous variants, but Tedros said the world’s health care systems still face a severe test.

“There is a narrative that it is ‘milder or less severe,’” Tedros said. “But we undermine the other side, and at the same time it can be dangerous, because high susceptibility to transmission can increase hospitalizations and deaths.”

His comments came after COVID-19 cases in the United States topped an average of 265,000 on Tuesday, the highest daily toll since the start of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

“In a few weeks, Omicron has increased rapidly across the country and we expect it to continue to be in circulation in the coming weeks,” Rochelle Wallinsky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters on Wednesday.

In France, Health Minister Olivier Veran used similar language to the World Health Organization, saying the country was facing a two-fold “tidal wave” with Omicron and Delta.

France is set to record 208,000 positive cases on Wednesday, Ferrand said, a daily record since the start of the pandemic. Testing has increased, he said, but the rate of case prevalence has been unprecedented.

Meanwhile, Germany recorded 13,129 cases of the Omicron variant on Wednesday, up 26 percent from the previous day, according to official figures from the Robert Koch Institute, the country’s main public health agency.

The Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, said that the current situation is much worse than what official data indicate, and he estimates that the actual infection rate of the Corona virus in Germany is two or three times what the official statistics showed. He said there was a “clear increase” in Omicron’s cases, describing it as “alarming”.

He appealed to people to celebrate New Year’s Eve in a way that does not lead to new chains of infection. “Please celebrate in small groups,” he said.

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In the United States, Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, acknowledged there was increasingly strong evidence of “lower severity” of omicron, either due to greater immunity to the coronavirus or due to a milder intrinsic virulence, but said it was no reason to complacency.

He told CNBC later Wednesday that he expected the Omicron wave in the US to reach its peak “probably by the end of January.”

However, US health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines that shorten the quarantine schedule for people infected with the coronavirus to five days if they do not show any symptoms.

“We know that after five days, people are less likely to transmit the virus,” Walinsky said.

At the World Health Organization, Tedros lamented the slow progress in distributing vaccines around the world.

Tedros said more than 90 countries around the world have missed the goal of vaccinating 40 percent of their population by the end of the year due to a combination of limited supply and vaccines that are close to their expiration date or without key ingredients, such as injections.

“40 percent were able to do that,” he added, warning that strong booster programs in rich countries could again cause shortages in poor countries despite an increase in supplies early next year. “Not only is it a moral disgrace, it has cost lives and provided the virus with opportunities to spread unchecked and mutate.”

A Financial Times analysis published this month shows that boosters for Covid in rich countries outnumber vaccines among poor countries. Scientists have long warned that unequal access to vaccines, combined with a high rate of transmission, could lead to more troubling variables.

The World Health Organization is calling for all countries to vaccinate at least 70 percent of their population by mid-2022.

Additional reporting by Donato Paolo Mancini in London, James Politi in Bolzano, Sarah White in Paris and Guy Chazan in Berlin

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