WHO warns of 'concerning' Covid trends ahead of winter: ‘It’s a worry as…'

The World Health Organization warned of "concerning trends" for Covid-19 ahead of winter in the Northern Hemisphere as the health agency called for increased vaccinations and surveillance. While data is limited as many countries have stopped reporting Covid data, the UN health agency estimated that hundreds of thousands of people around the world were currently hospitalised owing to Covid.

"We continue to see concerning trends for Covid-19 ahead of the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

"Deaths are increasing in some parts of the Middle East and Asia, intensive care unit admissions are increasing in Europe and hospitalisations are increasing in several regions," he said.

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Only 43 countries are reporting Covid deaths to the agency, and only 20 provide information about hospitalisations, he added, explaining that currently there is no single dominant Covid variant worldwide, but the EG.5 Omicron subvariant is on the rise. Small numbers of the highly mutated BA.2.86 subvariant have also now been detected in 11 countries, he said.

The WHO is "monitoring this variant closely to assess its transmissibility and potential impact," he continued, asserting that one of WHO's biggest concerns was how few at-risk people had recently received a Covid jab.

"The increase in hospitalisations and deaths shows that Covid-19 is here to stay, and that we will continue to need tools to fight it," he said.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on Covid-19, said, “We estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of people in hospital now for Covid. That is a worry given that when we get to colder months, in some countries, people tend to spend more time indoors together, and viruses that transmit through the air like Covid will take advantage of that.”

With influenza and RSV also circulating, Maria Van Kerkhove emphasised on the importance of testing as well as vaccination.

Preliminary data suggests that existing vaccines will give protection against BA.2.86, she informed.

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