WHO calls on us not to let our guard down despite slight drop in global cases

New global COVID-19 cases fell last week after nearly Two months of promotions, although World Health Organization (WHO) BID Don’t let your guard down Before the advance of the omicron variant, which slowly began to replace delta, predominated the major epidemic this year.

From December 6 to 12 they were recorded on this planet 4 million cases of COVID-19Down 5 percent from the previous week, while deaths, whose curve has been relatively flat since October, fell 10 percent to 47 thousand, according to the latest epidemiological report from the World Health Organization.

The numbers give some relief after weeks of worrying about the rapid increase in the number of cases Europe (Where injuries decreased by 7 percent in the seven days studied) and due to initial concern about the discovery of The new variant omicronDespite the insistence of the World Health Organization Don’t let your guard down.

CEO of the organization, Tedros Adhanom GhebreyesusAt his recent press conference, he cautioned against excessive relaxation in the face of press information and medical studies linking the omicron variant specifically to mild cases of COVID-19.

“We have seen before that underestimating this virus is dangerous,” he stressed. Tedros, who insisted that “even if Omicron causes fewer serious cases, a sharp increase in cases (being more contagious) could again lead to the collapse of inadequately prepared health systems.”

Produce delta to omicron

In the latest epidemiological report of the World Health Organization, the “conflict” between delta variable, which took control of the epidemic this year, with omicron, is still present in relatively few laboratory cases but is progressing gradually.

Delta, which by the middle of 2020 was already in more than half international cases And that in November it reached a concentration of 99.8 percent of sequential cases, this percentage was reduced to 99.2 percent in the latest measurement by the global network of laboratories GISAID, which collaborates with the World Health Organization.

It’s the first week since the replacement delta The organization highlighted in the weekly report that it was considered “alarming” by the World Health Organization in April of this year, as its percentage decreased in laboratory cases.

Of the 879,000 cases that have been sequenced in the laboratory before GISAID network In the past 60 days, the vast majority (872 thousand) were still of the delta variant, but Omicron already represented 3 thousand 755 cases (0.4 percent), when a week ago this percentage was 0.1 percent, indicating rapid progress.

the omicron variable It is expanding “at a rate that we have not seen in any of the previous strains,” Tedros warned in this regard, after confirming that it has already been confirmed in at least 77 countries, although “it may already be in those that have not yet been detected.” “.

No longer only among travelers

the Weekly epidemiological report The WHO also stresses that although most of the omicron cases identified since November in more than 70 countries have been linked to it. Travel, there are already sources of infection in the same community.

The study adds that current evidence indicates that omicron variable It has evolutionary advantages over Delta when it comes to transmissions and it does so faster.

In his omicron analysis, the Who is the He reiterates that the alternative appears to affect the efficacy and transmission of vaccines against infection, and that above all it appears clear that it increases the risk of reinfection (the possibility that a person with COVID-19 will contract it again).

Independent preliminary studies of the World Health Organization have shown that omicron Reduces protection against reinfection in four of the main vaccines that have studied this aspect: those produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

The variable does not appear, however, Affects polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for virus detectionthat could help monitor its progress, while treatments against acute or critical cases of COVID-19 “should remain effective” against omicron, the World Health Organization notes.

With information from EFE