World in early stages of Covid-19 third wave: WHO head

GENEVA – The world is currently in the early stages of a third wave, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

In his opening remarks at the 8th meeting of the IHR Emergency Committee on Covid-19, Ghebreyesus said in the past week, cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) were increasing globally.

Moreover, “deaths are increasing again” after 10 weeks of declines, he said.

“The Delta variant is one of the main drivers of the current increase in transmission, fueled by increased social mixing and mobility, and inconsistent use of proven public health and social measures,” he added.

Ghebreyesus said “the Delta variant is now in more than 111 countries” so the WHO expects “it to soon be the dominant Covid-19 strain circulating worldwide if it isn’t already.”

The WHO head slammed “a shocking disparity in the global distribution of vaccines”.

Meanwhile, lack of access to vaccines leaves most of the world’s population “at the mercy of the virus”, Ghebreyesus said, recalling that “many countries still have not received any vaccines, and most have not received enough”.

“COVAX can work, but the scale is still far too small, with just over 100 million doses shipped,” he said.