Friday, March 29, 2024

Omicron overwhelming health systems around the world: WHO chief

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday warned the world not to take the Omicron variant of COVID-19 as”mild” reminding the global leaders that the highest number of COVID-19 cases reported so far in the pandemic was in last week.

In his opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19, Ghebreyesus observed that “the tsunami of cases is so huge and quick, that it is overwhelming health systems around the world.” 

Just under 9.5 million new Covid-19 cases were reported to the WHO last week, as the Omicron scare goes worldwide.

He raised concern about hospitals becoming overcrowded and understaffed, which further results in preventable deaths from not only COVID-19 but other diseases and injuries where patients cannot receive timely care.

“Vaccine inequity and health inequity overall were the biggest failures of last year,” Ghebreyesus criticised.

“At the current pace of vaccine rollout, 109 countries would miss out on fully vaccinating 70% of their populations by the start of July 2022.”

“Booster after booster in a small number of countries will not end a pandemic while billions remain completely unprotected,” he added.

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