COVID-19 Delta variant now spreading in 104 countries –WHO

WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the COVID-19 Delta variant was ripping around the world at a scorching pace, driving a new spike in cases and deaths from COVID-19.

  WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, said this at a media briefing on COVID-19 at WHO headquarters in Geneva, yesterday.

  A post on WHO website quotes Ghebreyesus as saying that week marked the fourth consecutive week of increasing cases of COVID-19 globally, with increases recorded in all but one of WHO’s six regions.

  According to him, after 10 weeks of declines, deaths were increasing again such that Delta variant is ripping around the world at a scorching pace, driving a new spike in cases and death.

  “Not everywhere is taking the same hit though, we’re in the midst of a growing two-track pandemic where the haves and have-nots within and between countries are increasingly divergent.  

  In places with high vaccination coverage, Delta is spreading quickly; especially infecting unprotected and vulnerable people and steadily putting pressure back on health systems,” he said.

  Speaking further, Ghebreyesus explained that in low-income countries, exhausted health workers were battling to save lives among shortages of personal protective equipment, oxygen and treatments, adding that vaccines had never been the way out of the crisis on their own, but the current wave is demonstrating what a powerful tool they are.

  Also warning that the world is experiencing a worsening public health emergency that further threatens lives, livelihoods and a sound global economic recovery, he reiterated that the global gap in vaccine supply was hugely uneven and inequitable.

  “Some countries and regions are actually ordering millions of booster doses, before other countries have had supplies to vaccinate their health workers and most vulnerable,” he said.