Ômicron leaves health systems on the brink of collapse, WHO warns

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO (World Health Organization), said the “tsunami” created by the simultaneous circulation of Covid’s delta and omicron variants is pushing “health systems to the brink of collapse”.

In the WHO weekly epidemiological bulletin, the entity highlights that omicron is highly contagious and that it represents a “very high” risk. Circulation of the variant around the world caused a record number of cases in the last seven days.

There were 935,863 new cases per day on average in the last week, according to the AFP balance drawn up based on official information.

The number is considerably higher than the previous record, recorded between April 23 and 29, with 817,000 cases a day on average, and represents a 37% increase compared to the previous week.

“The overall risk related to the new variant of omicron concern remains very high,” warned the WHO in its weekly epidemiological report. The document highlights that the number of cases doubles every two to three days.

The majority of new infections were reported in Europe, where several countries announced new records for the entire pandemic on Tuesday (28).

In France, 208,000 new Covid cases were reported in the past 24 hours, not far behind the United States, where a record weekly average of 265,427 daily cases was recorded on Tuesday, according to a Johns Hopkins University platform survey. .

Denmark is today the country in the world with the most new cases in relation to its population. It surpassed, this Wednesday (29), its absolute record by registering 23,228 new infections in a single day. The Danish incidence means that more than one in every 60 inhabitants tested positive last week.

In the UK, an additional 130,000 cases were reported on Tuesday. A massive booster vaccination campaign has already applied booster doses to 57% of those over 12 years old. According to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, 90% of Covid patients admitted to intensive care did not receive the third dose.

In Spain, where nearly 100,000 new cases have been reported, the government announced on Monday that it would reduce the quarantine from ten to seven days for people infected by the need to strike a balance between “public health” and “economic growth,” it said. President Pedro Sánchez.

The rise in contagions has reached Latin America and the Caribbean, where the epidemic appeared to be in retreat for a few weeks. At the moment, contagions are accelerating in the region, which has accumulated 47 million infections and nearly 1.6 million deaths.

The spread coincides with the increase in cases of the omicron variant in Panama, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba and Ecuador.

In Argentina, cases have multiplied by six since the beginning of the month.

The omicron variant appears to cause fewer hospitalizations than the delta, which had been dominant until then, according to early studies and the WHO bulletin. Some scientists point out, however, that the greater number of contagions can nullify the advantage of a less dangerous variant. WHO also says more data is needed.

With a pandemic once again accelerating, governments are trying to find a balance between controlling the spread and containing economic damage.

Finland has banned the entry of unvaccinated foreign travelers. Sweden, Denmark and Austria require non-resident travelers to present negative tests and proof of vaccination. France will limit the validity of the “health passport” to vaccinated people.

In addition, the French government announced the mandatory use of telecommuting “whenever possible” and the closing of nightclubs for another three weeks.

Germany will implement new restrictions, including limiting meetings to ten people among the vaccinated and to just two among the unvaccinated, as well as closing nightclubs and sporting events without the presence of fans.

China, which faces a source of contamination 40 days from the Beijing Winter Olympics, ordered the confinement of tens of thousands of people on Tuesday. After the city of Xi’an (north) entered a stringent lockdown last week, tens of thousands of residents in a Yan’an city district, 300 kilometers from Xi’an, began confinement on Tuesday .

The Covid pandemic has caused more than 5.4 million deaths worldwide since December 2019, according to an AFP balance based on official sources. WHO believes, however, that the actual number can be between two and three times this total.

Since the start of the pandemic, more than 282 million cases have been officially registered.