The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the global reported cases of COVID-19 have increased by nearly 30 per cent over the past two weeks.
Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said this on Wednesday during an online COVID-19 media briefing.
Ghebreyesus said that four out of six of the WHO sub-regions saw cases increasing in the last week.
According to him, compounding the challenge are a number of factors.
Ghebreyesus said the first was that testing has reduced dramatically in many countries.
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Second, new treatments, especially promising new oral antivirals, are still not reaching low and low-middle income countries, depriving whole populations that need them.
“Third, as the virus evolves, vaccines protection while still really effective at preventing serious disease and death does wane.
According to Ghebreyesus, it obviously impacts individuals and their families but it also puts an extra burden on health systems, the wider economy and society-at-large.
He said the challenges required action at a global, national and local level.
He said that governments, scientists, manufacturers, WHO and citizens themselves all have their part to play.
