WHO: In 10 weeks, omicron surge causes COVID cases to soar

GENEVA — The World Health Organization chief said Tuesday that 90 million cases of coronavirus have been reported since the omicron variant was first identified 10 weeks ago — amounting to more than in all of 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. With many countries easing their restrictive measures amid public fatigue about them, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyeus cautioned that omicron should not be underestimated even though it has shown to bring less severe illness than earlier variants — and cited “a very worrying increase in deaths in most regions of the world.” “We are concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines — and because of omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity — preventing transmission is no longer possible and no longer necessary,” he told a regular WHO briefing on the pandemic. On Tuesday, Denmark’s government scrapped most restrictions aimed at fighting the pandemic, saying it no longer considers COVID-19 “a socially critical disease.” The nation of 5.8 million has in recent weeks seen more than 50,000 new cases a day, but the number of patients in intensive care units has declined. But please don’t just follow blindly what every other country is doing.” Ryan expressed concern that “political pressure will result in people in some countries opening prematurely — and that will result in unnecessary transmission, unnecessary severe disease, and unnecessary death.” Meanwhile, Van Kerkhove also said a group of experts that was set up last year to look into the emergence of new pathogens like the coronavirus — and assess its origins — is expected to issue a report “in the coming weeks.” She said the group, known by the acronym SAGO, has held about a half-dozen meetings since its first one in late November. She said the group would, among other things, look at early epidemiological studies and “our current understanding of the origins of this particular pandemic, building upon previous missions that have gone to China and worked with Chinese scientists.” She alluded to the work of another WHO-led team that traveled to China, where the pandemic first emerged, and reported on the outbreak in March last year.