Worldwide deaths from COVID-19 last week lowest since March 2020: WHO

The world has never been in a better position to end the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday, urging nations to continue their efforts against the virus that has killed more than six million people.

“We are not there yet. But the end is in sight,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a virtual press conference.

The comment was the most upbeat from the UN agency since it declared COVID-19 an international emergency and began describing the virus as a pandemic in March 2020.

The virus, which emerged in China in late 2019, has killed nearly 6.5 million people and infected 606 million, hitting global economies and overwhelming health systems.

Vaccines, therapies have helped curb the severity of COVID

The rollout of vaccines and therapies has helped curb the severity of the disease. Deaths from COVID-19 last week were the lowest since March 2020.

In its weekly report on the pandemic, the UN agency said deaths fell by 22 percent in the past week, with just over 11,000 reported worldwide. There were 3.1 million new cases, down 28 percent, continuing a week-long decline in the disease in all parts of the world.

Still, the WHO warned that lax COVID-19 testing and surveillance in many countries means many cases are going unnoticed. The agency issued a set of policy briefs to governments to strengthen their response to the coronavirus ahead of the expected winter wave of COVID-19, warning that new variants could yet undo the progress made to date.

“If we don’t take this opportunity now, we risk more variants, more deaths, more disruption and more uncertainty,” Tedros said.

The WHO reported that the Omicron subvariant BA.5 continues to dominate globally and comprised nearly 90 percent of virus samples shared with the world’s largest public database. In recent weeks, regulators in Europe, the US and elsewhere have approved tweaked vaccines that target both the original coronavirus and later variants including BA.5.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, said the organization expected future waves of the disease but was hopeful they would not cause many deaths.

Monkeypox cases were also on a downward trend, but Tedros urged countries to continue the fight.

WHO officials said last month that it is possible to eliminate the monkeypox outbreak in Europe by stepping up vaccination and testing.

“As with COVID-19, this is not the time to relax or let our guard down.”