According to the WHO, only 43 countries currently report corona-related deaths to it.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warns of worrying corona trends as winter approaches in the northern hemisphere.
– Corona-related deaths have become more common in parts of the Middle East and Asia, the number of patients requiring intensive care is increasing in Europe and the number of patients requiring hospital treatment is increasing in several regions, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus listed at a press conference yesterday, Wednesday.
WHO estimates that there are hundreds of thousands of corona patients requiring hospital treatment in different parts of the world. The estimate is inaccurate, as many countries have stopped updating corona statistics.
– The number of patients is worrying, because when the weather gets colder, people spend more time indoors in many countries. Airborne viruses like covid benefit from it, epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove WHO said.
According to the WHO, only 43 countries currently report corona-related deaths to it. The amount corresponds to almost a fourth of the WHO member countries. Even fewer countries report cases requiring hospitalization. There are 20 of them.
Van Kerkhove emphasized the importance of testing and vaccination when there are also flu viruses and RS virus circulating in the world. In Finland, THL has already recommended giving a booster dose of the corona vaccine to people over 65 and risk groups.
On the other hand, there is not one dominant variant of the coronavirus in the world, but the omicron sub-variant EG.5, or Eris, is taking over the space. It has also been found in Finland. In addition, the BA.2.86 variant has been found in 11 countries, but the cases are few.
– According to preliminary data, the vaccines in use protect against the BA.2.86 variant, Van Kerkhove said.
The pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Phizer also assure that their vaccines protect against the latest variants of the coronavirus.
Sources: AFP, Reuters