World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
(Photo: WHO/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General, Tedros Ghebreyesus on Wednesday, 29 December, expressed concern that the high transmissibility of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, circulating along with the Delta variant, is leading to a "tsunami of cases".
Observing that the parallel circulation of the Delta and Omicron variants is driving up cases globally, the WHO chief stated:
"This is and will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted healthcare workers and health systems on the brink of collapse and again disrupting lives and livelihoods," he observed at the press conference.
The unvaccinated are many times more at risk of dying from either variant, he added.
While science delivered, politics too often triumphed over solidarity, stated WHO Director General Ghebreyesus at the press conference on Wednesday.
"While there were 1.8 million recorded deaths in 2020, there were 3.5 million in 2021 and we know the actual number is much higher," he stated.
The WHO chief appealed to vaccine manufacturers and leaders of wealthy nations to learn from the lessons of the past, and to work towards ending vaccine inequity.
"I call on leaders of rich countries and manufacturers to learn the lessons of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and now Omicron and work together to reach the 70% vaccination coverage. This is the time to rise above short-term nationalism and protect populations and economies against future variants by ending global vaccine inequity," he said.
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