WHO warned of global spike in infections, lamented premature lifting of restrictions

At a press conference in Geneva, Tedros lamented 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 clarified.

According to their data, these figures indicate that thThe 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 of the coronavirus, which make it more contagious; and that people have started mixing again because of the “premature” lifting of certain restrictions.

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

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

The situation in India is extremely worrying: today it again recorded a record number of infections with more than 217,000 positive 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 deal with this increase in infections, authorities have imposed restrictions.

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

In addition, during the weekend, shopping centers, auditoriums, restaurants and sports halls will remain 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 factory, which is located in India, today urged the President of the United States, Joe biden, to lift the ban on the export of raw materials urgently needed for vaccine production.

“Respected President, if we really want to unite to defeat this virus, I humbly ask you to lift the embargo on raw material exports outside the United States so that vaccine production can increase,” pleaded the director of the Indian Serum Institute, Adar Poonawalla, in a message written on Twitter.

Poonawalla explained last week that the production was “very stressed” and asked the Indian government for financial help.

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

The situation is dramatic in at least 17 state capitals, according to a newspaper survey Sao Paulo state, and today’s data and warnings added a request from the Women’s Health portfolio to postpone pregnancies where possible to avoid exposing themselves to the risk of a pandemic.

Uruguay, meanwhile, reported 79 deaths on the last day, a record number 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 “were not enough”. the announcement of new, stricter measures is therefore imminent.

Chile, for its part, recorded 7,590 new infections and, although it recorded a notable drop from the record 9,171 recorded last Friday, active cases reached a new peak of 46,492 patients, thus the health Minister, Enrique Paris, asked to “persevere” in care.

In the United States, the Biden administration today continued to expand public management capacity for the pandemic and announced it will spend $ 1.7 billion to identify and track coronavirus mutations that could spread. 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.

At the same time, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, He defended before the Parliament of his 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.