The CEO of the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Wednesday Nearly 90% drop in recent COVID-19 deaths globally compared to figures from nine months ago. He added that the news is “cause for optimism”, but calls for vigilance against the pandemic, amid the emergence of new variants.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that last week just over 9,400 deaths linked to the coronavirus. By February, he added, weekly deaths had surpassed 75,000 globally.
“We have made a lot of progress and this is definitely cause for optimism, but we continue to call on governments, communities and individuals to remain vigilant,” he told a news conference call from the organization’s headquarters in Geneva.
“Nearly 10,000 deaths a week is 10,000 too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated,” he said.
The WHO chief added that rates of testing and sequencing remain low globallyvaccination gaps between rich and poor countries remain wide and new variants continue to proliferate.
The UN health agency said the total number of new COVID-19 cases recorded globally exceeded 2.1 million in the week ending Sunday, down 15% from the previous week. The weekly death toll fell 10% from the previous week’s figure.
In total, the WHO has reported 629 million cases and 6.5 million deaths related to the pandemic.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical director for COVID-19, cited “substantially low” estimates of the actual circulation of the virus due because surveillance and testing have declined along with a drop in case counts. He recalled that the coronavirus “is still a pandemic and continues to circulate uncontrollably around the world,” so the key focus now is on hospitalizations and deaths.
The highest number of new cases reported was in Japan, with more than 401,000, an increase of 42% from the previous week. It was followed by South Korea, the United States, Germany and China, which counted more than 219,000 new cases in the week: a drop of 15% from the previous week.
Still, China recorded 539 COVID-19-related deaths in the week, an increase of 10% from the previous week.
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