Geneva: Sub-variants of Omicron, like BA.4 and BA.5, continue to drive waves of cases, hospitalisation and death around the world, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said.
"I am concerned that cases of COVID-19 continue to rise - putting further pressure on stretched health systems and health workers," the WHO Chief told a COVID-19 media briefing on Tuesday.
"I am also concerned about the increasing trend of deaths," he added.
According to him, surveillance has reduced significantly – including testing and sequencing – making it increasingly difficult to assess the impact of variants on transmission, disease characteristics, and the effectiveness of counter-measures.
Furthermore, diagnostics, treatments and vaccines are not being deployed effectively.
"The virus is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity, in terms of both hospitalisation for acute cases and the expanding number of people with post covid-19 condition - often referred to as long-covid," he told journalists.
"Finally, there is a major disconnect in COVID-19 risk perception between scientific communities, political leaders and the general public," he stated.
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