The World Health Organisation urged governments and health care systems to take steps to curb Covid-19 transmission as a fresh wave of infections moves across Europe and the US.
Sub-variants of the Omicron strain are lifting case numbers and leading to further fatalities, director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. Tedros, as the head of the WHO is known, recommended the revival of protocols such as mask-wearing to stop the spread.
Europe is at the centre of a new wave of cases driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub-variants as people attend large gatherings and resume travelling after two years of staying close to home. The WHO is worried that even as cases rise again, surveillance of the virus and new potential variants is on the decline.
Tedros said a WHO committee reiterated that Covid-19 remains a public health emergency of international concern — the way the global health organisation classifies a pandemic.