GENEVA (AP) – A top World Health Organization expert on the coronavirus pandemic said Monday that the global weekly death toll from COVID-19 is rising again, a “worrying sign” after about six weeks of decline.
Maria Van Kerkhove, technical director for COVID-19 at the UN health agency, said the increase followed the fifth consecutive week of confirmed cases of growing worldwide. She said the number of reported cases had increased in four of the six WHO regions, although there were significant variations in each region.
“In the last week, cases have risen by 8%,” Van Kerkhove told reporters. “In Europe, this is 12% – and this is led by several countries.”
The increase is partly due to the spread of a variant that first appeared in the UK and is now circulating in many other places, including Eastern Europe, she said.
Southeast Asia saw a 49% week-on-week increase in confirmed cases, while the WHO’s Western Pacific region reported a 29% increase, fueled largely by the Philippines, Van Kerkhove said. The Eastern Mediterranean region saw an increase in cases of 8%, while the number of reported cases in the Americas and Africa decreased.
“I want to mention that it’s been about six weeks since we’ve seen a drop in deaths,” Van Kerkhove said. “And in the last week, we have started to see a slight increase in deaths worldwide and this is to be expected if we want to see cases increase. But this is also a worrying sign. ”
The head of the WHO for emergencies, Dr. Michael Ryan, acknowledged an urge among the public in many places to get out of the pandemic’s restrictions. Ryan insisted that any relaxation should coincide with measures such as strict case surveillance and high levels of vaccination, but said vaccines alone would not be enough.
“I’m afraid we’re all trying to understand straw. We are trying to find the golden solution: “So we get enough vaccine and push enough vaccine to people and that will take care of it,” he said. “I’m sorry, it’s not.”