Manila: ‘The pandemic is not yet over, a World Health Organization (WHO) official warned on Friday, saying the continued emergence of subvariants ‘poses a risk of resurgence and overwhelming health systems.’
Babatunde Olowokure, director of Health Security and Emergencies for WHO in the Western Pacific, said Singapore and New Zealand are experiencing surges of Covid-19 cases, while Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Vietnam have shown a sustained decline of cases, hospitalization, and deaths since August, reports Chinese news agency Xinhua.
Olowokure told a press conference that the circulation of Covid-19 Omicron XBB subvariant is fueling the surge in Singapore, while the BA.5 is still the dominant variant in New Zealand.
“Singapore reimposed public health safety measures such as limiting visitors in hospitals and residential care homes,” he said.
The decline of cases in several countries is due to ‘relatively high vaccine coverage,’ Olowokure said, while urging people to remain vigilant despite the decline in reported cases regionally and globally.
WHO data showed that the Western Pacific Region tallied over 92 million confirmed Covid-19 cases, including more than 270,000 deaths since the highly infectious and fatal disease emerged in 2020.
India Covid update
According to the data released by the Ministry of Health on Friday morning, 2,119 new cases of corona infection have been reported in the country in the last 24 hours while 10 people have died.
A total of 2,582 people recovered from Covid-19. With this, the number of active cases of corona in the country stood at 25,037. In the last 24 hours, there has been slight downfall in the number of active cases.
The active cases comprise 0.06 per cent of the total infections, whereas the national Covid-19 recovery rate stands at 98.76 per cent.
According to the bulletin, 89.96 crore tests for Covid-19 have been done so far. In the last 24 hours, a total of 1,88,220 tests have been conducted.
