Covid Tsunami will drive health systems towards collapse: WHO chief

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that a "tsunami" of Omicron and Delta Covid-19 cases will pile pressure on health systems already being stretched to their limits. The WHO said the Delta and Omicron variants of concern were "twin threats" that were driving new case numbers to record highs, leading to spikes in hospitalisations and deaths. New global cases had risen by 11 percent last week, while the United States and France both registered record daily case numbers on Wednesday WHO noted. Addressing the press , the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said He said the pressure on health systems was not only due to new coronavirus patients, but also large numbers of health workers falling ill with Covid. The WHO wanted 40 percent of the population in every country fully vaccinated by the end of the year and has a target of 70 percent coverage by the middle of 2022 he said.

Meanwhile, WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan has said vaccines are still proving to be effective against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) as she pointed out its “severity has not surged to a new level” even though infections are going up exponentially in many countries due to the Omicron variant. Dr Swaminathan also stressed the Omicron variant is infecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated people worldwide and urged everyone to get the jab against Covid-19. She said information about Omicron is still emerging and it would still be premature to conclude definitely but studies are pointing towards a reduction in neutralisation capacity. Stressing that hospitalisations and even within hospitalised people the need for ventilation and critical care has not gone up proportionately, Swaminathan said this is a good sign and it shows previous immunity is either due to vaccines or in some cases due to natural infection by the virus. She also said that there are biological factors also that decide a vaccine's effectiveness. "It includes age, underlying illnesses and we know and proved it with all the variants that the older you are the more the underlying illnesses and co-morbidities the more vulnerable you are to get the disease," she said.