In the last 24 hours, India reported 31 new COVID infections, with the active cases currently totaling 249, said sources.
The death toll was recorded at 5,33,298, according to the ministry’s data updated at 8 a.m. This comes amid the rise seen in several countries, including the US, the UK, France, Malaysia, Australia and the Philippines. SARS-CoV-2 virus is circulating, evolving and changing, said Maria Van Kerkhove, interim director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention at World Health Organization (WHO), at a recent discussion on the global health body’s social media channels.
COVID Remains a Present Threat Worldwide
Van Kerkhove, who was WHO’s technical lead during the pandemic, said that COVID continues to pose a threat and “is circulating in every country right now”.”The world has moved on from COVID, and in many respects, that’s good because people are able to stay protected and keep themselves safe, but this virus has not gone anywhere. It’s circulating. It’s changing, it’s killing, and we have to keep up,” Van Kerkhove, WHO was quoted as saying to Euronews Next.
Australia’s North Territory Centre for Disease Control has been notified of more than 500 cases in the past four weeks alone — a 160 percent spike from the previous four-week period. Western Australia restores mask mandate in Perth public hospitals as COVID-19 cases surge. Malaysia reported 2,305 COVID cases last week, an increase of 28 percent with 21 Omicron variants reported.
The Philippines reported 175 new COVID cases.The most common variants include BA.2.86 which has been “slowly increasing globally”, said the WHO which recently classified it as a “variant of interest”.EG.5, also nicknamed Eris, declared as a variant of interest by WHO back in August, currently represents more than half of the COVID-19 variants circulating globally.
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Earlier this month, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) flagged concerns over two new variants — JN.1 and HV.1 — with potential to evade the immune system. JN.1 was detected in the US in September and has also been identified in 11 other countries including the UK, US, Iceland, Portugal and Spain, the CDC said. HV.1, which surfaced in mid-summer, now accounts for 29 percent of the COVID-19 cases in the US, the agency said.
According to the European Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC), XBB 1.5-like variants such as EG.5 are currently dominant, making up about 67 percent of cases in EU/EEA countries. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease increased to 4,44,68,217 and the national recovery rate stood at 98.81 percent, according to the health ministry’s website.The case fatality rate stood at 1.19 percent.
Source: IANS
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