Early stages of COVID third wave, amid Delta surge: WHO chief

World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned the world about the 'early stages' of COVID-19 third wave amid Delta surge. "Unfortunately...we are now in the early stages of a third wave", he said. The head of WHO said that Delta variant's spread, along with increased social mobility and the inconsistent use of proven public health measures, is driving an increase in both case numbers and deaths. Ghebreyesus said in an address to the emergency committee on Covid-19 established under the International Health Regulations (IHR), a treaty that guides global response to public health risks.

The Delta variant is now in more than 111 countries and we expect it to soon be the dominant Covid-19 strain circulating worldwide, if it isn’t already, said WHO chief and added that the coronavirus is continuing to evolve and resulting in more transmissible variants.  He said that Covid-19 cases and deaths were on the decline for a while due to increasing vaccination rates in Europe and North America, but the global trend has now reversed and cases are rising once again, the last week being the fourth consecutive one which witnessed rising cases in all but one of WHO's six regions. Deaths are also rising again, after 10 weeks of steady decline,

Vaccination against Covid-19 is important but that alone will not stop the pandemic, the global health body said, pointing out that countries need to undertake a "comprehensive risk management approach to mass gatherings", an updated guidance for which was recently issued by WHO. Tedros reiterated WHO's appeal for a massive push to vaccinate at least 10 per cent of the population of every country by September, at least 40 per cent by the end of 2021, and at least 70 per cent by mid-2022.