Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 13th Jan. World health agency on Friday warned that the public health risk from COVID-19 remains high globally.
The agency said in a press release that the virus is still circulating globally but relatively few countries are following infections closely, meaning the actual threat due to the coronavirus and its variants could be anything from two to 19 times higher than what is being reported to WHO.
Dr Maria Van Kerhove of the WHO told journalists in Geneva that data from just 50 countries indicates there are still 10,000 deaths per month due to the virus.
“On the positive side, the numbers of deaths have reduced drastically since its peak a couple of years ago”, the senior official said.
Who SAID 10,000 deaths reported in December, OVER half were reported from the United States with 1,000 from Italy.
She said it was clear that other deaths were simply not being recorded but that “doesn’t mean that they’re not happening.”
Dr Van Kerkhove noted with concern a steep rise in hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions and warned that these numbers are likely to have increased over the holiday season.
She said that many countries continue to suffer unnecessarily from COVID which can be prevented with adequate testing and antivirals, along with appropriate clinical care, oxygen and vaccination.
