WHO regrets the “premature lifting” of restrictions and alerts on infections – Telam

WHO warns world is approaching “highest Covid-19 infection rate in pandemic”

The world is heading towards “the highest Covid-19 infection rate to date during the pandemic” due to the explosive increase in cases in many parts of the planet, the director general of the world warned on Friday. World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who attributed part of the responsibility to the “premature” lifting of certain restrictions.

Two extreme examples illustrate the WHO alert: India has recorded a record number of infections with more than 217,000 positive cases on the last day and nearly 1,200 deaths in a single day; and Papa Nueva Guinea, an island of 8.7 million inhabitants and isolated by its geography, which until the beginning of the year had only 900 cases, now multiplies infections by 10.

At a press conference in Geneva, Tedros regretted that coronavirus cases and deaths “continue to increase at an alarming rate.”

“Globally, the number of new cases per week has almost doubled in the past two months“, He specified, according to the press agency Europa Press.

Based on their data, these figures indicate that the world “is approaching the highest infection rate we have seen so far during the pandemic”.

Tedros pointed out that one of the reasons for this is that some countries that previously avoided widespread transmission are now seeing “a sharp increase in infections”, with epicenters around the world in Brazil and India.

Among the most influential factors, the WHO director also highlighted rapid spread of variants coronavirus, which makes it more contagious; and people started to mix again “Premature” lifting of certain restrictions.

In this context, the WHO again rejected the idea that a vaccination “passport” or “certificate” would soon become a travel requirement because it has not been proven that a person vaccinated, although protected against severe symptoms, cannot be a carrier and transmit the virus to others.

“We know that vaccines do not protect 100% against infections, although they are very effective against serious infections and hospitalizations,” said Soumya Swaminathan, WHO chief scientist.

The situation in India is more than worrying: today has returned to a record number of infections with over 217,000 positive cases on the last day and nearly 1,200 deaths in a single day. The Department of Health brought the total number of cases to 14,291,917 and the number of deaths to 173,000 after adding 1,185.

To cope with this increase in infections, the authorities they imposed restrictions.

In New Delhi, the nation’s capital and worst-hit city, a curfew begins tonight from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., the Hindustan Times reported.

In addition, during the weekend, shopping centers, auditoriums, restaurants and gymnasiums will be closed, while cinemas will be able to show films with 30% of their seating capacity during the week.

And precisely The director of the world’s largest vaccine plant, which is located in India, today urged United States President Joe Biden to lift the ban on the export of raw materials urgently needed for the vaccine production.

“Respected President, if we are serious about coming together to defeat this virus, I humbly ask you to lift the embargo on raw material exports out of the United States so that vaccine production can increase. “pleaded with the director of the Indian Serum Institute, Adar Poonawalla, in a written message on Twitter.

Poonawalla explained last week that the production was “very stressed” and asked the Indian government for financial assistance, the AFP news agency reported.

In the region, Brazil maintains situations of extreme gravity: Rio de Janeiro has decided to use veterinary sedatives for intubated patients, given the shortage of these supplies due to the toll of inmates in intensive care who need mechanical aid.

The situation is dire in at least 17 state capitals, according to an investigation by the O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper, and the data and warnings today added a request from the Ministry of Health for women to postpone, to the extent possible, pregnancies to avoid being exposed to the risk of a pandemic.

Uruguay, meanwhile, reported 79 deaths on the last day, a record figure since the start of the pandemic, and Paraguay, which is on the verge of a health collapse, today assumed that the slight restrictions that ‘he imposed on Easter “was not enough”. , therefore, the announcement of new, stricter measures is imminent.
Chile, for its part, recorded 7,590 new infections and, although it achieved a notable drop from the record 9,171 recorded last Friday, active cases reached a new peak of 46,492 patients, for which I asked the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris. “Persevere” in care.
In the United States, the Joe Biden administration today continued to expand the public management capacity of the pandemic and announced it will spend $ 1.7 billion to identify and track coronavirus mutations whose spread could trigger another pandemic wave.

White House officials reported on the three-pronged strategy: funding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the creation of six “centers of excellence” and a data system to better share and analyze information on emerging threats.

In parallel, German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended before the Parliament of her country the need to apply stricter measures, in particular the night curfew, to try to stop the advance of the pandemic.

“The virus does not forgive half measures. We must do everything possible to stop and break the third wave,” Merkel said.