Even if some seem to think otherwise, the Covid epidemic is not over. It even resumes, notes the World Health Organization with last week “an increase of 8% in detected cases, with more than 11 million reported cases”. “And this despite a significant reduction in screening tests around the world,” WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove lamented on Wednesday. For her, several factors explain this increase.
The wave of infections is largely fueled by Omicron’s BA.2 sub-variant, which is already supplanting its BA.1 sibling in some countries. Without question, BA.2 “is the most contagious variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that we have seen so far”, insisted Maria Van Kerkhove.
Lifting restrictions and false thoughts
Added to this is the lifting of health measures taken against Covid in many countries, which gives the virus “the opportunity to spread”, as well as incomplete vaccination coverage in many regions of the world.
Finally, the WHO expert deplores the misinformation about Covid-19 that is circulating at very high levels: some say that Omicron is benign and that it is the last variant the world will face, other than the pandemic is over… “all this is causing great confusion”, which benefits the virus.