As case counts fall, WHO chief warns 'Covid isn't finished'
India TodayThe head of the World Health Organization insisted Wednesday that “Covid isn’t finished with us,” appealing for more support to fight the pandemic after his agency reported that case counts and deaths fell worldwide over the past week. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, launching a new $23 billion campaign to fund WHO’s efforts to lead a fair rollout of Covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines around the world, cautioned that “diseases know no borders” and the highly-transmissible omicron variant has shown that “any feeling of safety can change in a moment.” WHO’s weekly epidemiological report, released late Tuesday, showed that case counts fell 17 per cent worldwide over the last week, including a 50 per cent decline in the United States, while deaths globally declined 7 per cent. Read | Next Covid-19 variant will be more infectious than Omicron, possibly deadlier, warns WHO Case counts fell in each of WHO’s six regions except its eastern Mediterranean zone, which reported a 36 per cent jump, notably with increases in Afghanistan, Iran and Jordan. In Europe, case counts fell 7 per cent — led by substantial declines in Belgium, France, Italy and Spain — even as countries in Eastern Europe like Azerbaijan, Belarus and Russia posted increases in daily infections. In the Americas, case counts fell 36 per cent, with the United States — still the single most-affected country — reporting 1.87 million new cases, down 50 per cent from the previous week.