United States: The UN agency for health is warning that more severe variants of the coronavirus may emerge soon.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove of WHO states, “COVID-19 is still very much with us,” and circulating in all countries, as un.org reports.
Rising cases of the virus
Kerkhove states, “Data from our sentinel-based surveillance system across 84 countries reports that the percent of positive tests for SARS-CoV-2 has been rising over several weeks.”
She added, “Overall, test positivity is above 10 percent, but this fluctuates per region. In Europe, the percentage of positivity is above 20 percent.”
As the countries in the Americas, Europe, and the Western Pacific reported of the new waves of infection, reports of Wastewater suggested the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 was almost two to twenty times more than the current figures reported.

Moreover, as the high amount of circulation suggests in the northern hemisphere during summer, this time is considered atypical for respiratory viruses, which are generally seen to spread in cold temperatures.
According to Dr. Van Kerkhove, “In recent months, regardless of the season, many countries have experienced surges of COVID-19, including at the Olympics,” as un.org reported.
The WHO also says that at least forty athletes have tested positive for COVID-19 or other respiratory illnesses. Moreover, the chances of evading detection systems and not responding to medical interventions are highly possible with the advancement of more mutated forms of the virus.
What about a vaccination drive?
The WHO urges governments to strengthen their vaccination campaigns, as the current waves are leading to a surge in hospitalizations.
According to Dr. Van Kerkhove, “As individuals, it is important to take measures to reduce risk of infection and severe disease, including ensuring that you have had a COVID-19 vaccination dose in the last 12 months, especially, if you are in an at-risk group,” as un.org reported.
As per the WHO reports, there has been a considerable decrease in the administration of vaccines over the past one to one and a half years because the amount of vaccine production has decreased significantly.
Dr. Van Kerkhove added, “It is very difficult for them to maintain the pace,” and, “And certainly, they don’t need to maintain the pace that they had in 2021 and 2022. But let’s be very clear, there is a market for COVID-19 vaccines that are [already] out there.”
The development of nasal vaccination is currently underway, which has the tendency to control the transmission of disease which would prevent the further production of variants at a much considerable level.
Therefore, as the top WHO COVID specialist said, “I am concerned,” and “With such low coverage and with such large circulation, if we were to have a variant that would be more severe, then the susceptibility of the at-risk populations to develop the severe disease is huge.”
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