WHO warns that pandemic deaths are accelerating, as the world records most cases in a single week

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More than 5.2 million new cases were reported last week – the most in a single week since the start of the pandemic – WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news briefing in Geneva on Monday .

Deaths also rose for the fifth week in a row, he said, with the pandemic now officially losing more than 3 million lives.

Tedros also warned that the pace of the pandemic is accelerating, even though some countries are proposing their own improved vaccination programs.

“It took nine months to reach 1 million deaths, four months to reach 2 million and three months to reach 3 million deaths,” Tedros said. “The large numbers can make us numb, but each of these deaths is a tragedy for families, communities and nations.”

And as more at-risk or older adults are fully inoculated and some savings open up, the CEO has suggested that the weight of the virus spread may shift to younger adults. He told reporters that infections and hospitalizations among people aged 25 to 59 were “growing at an alarming rate”, possibly due to highly transmissible variants and the growing social mix among young people.

Concerns about several young adults taking Covid-19 have already been reported by doctors in some hotspots – including Brazil, where a new variant has led to a devastating increase in hospitalizations and deaths.

The images grow as the variations cause concern

The WHO’s stern warning serves as a reminder of the state of the pandemic, which has not yet dissipated in the face of disparate vaccine launches around the world.

India is suffering from a second calamitous wave of the virus and a significant part of the world’s infections are taking place there. The country has reported more than 200,000 new cases in each of the past six days – nearly 1.5 million in the past week – and crowded hospitals are removing patients as they fight the spread.
Hospital staff are treating a Covid-19 patient in Belgium earlier this month.

India’s many active cases include former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is in stable condition in hospital after contracting Covid-19.

With more than 15 million infections, the country is now only second to the United States in terms of the global situation. The United States has reported nearly 32 million infections.

England added India to the list of travel bans on Monday, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson canceled a scheduled trip there, but the political campaign is ongoing despite the dire situation.

Narendra Modi’s ruling party has said it will hold “small public gatherings” with a limit of 500 people in West Bengal, one of five states where state elections are currently taking place, according to a party statement. from Monday.

Much of Asia is similarly facing growing cases. An increase in Thailand has dampened hopes of receiving more tourists there, with places of hospitality being identified as the cause of recent outbreaks.
In the United States, where millions of people are vaccinated daily, cases and hospitalizations have increased in the last month. Experts cite coronavirus variants – including the more contagious strain B.1.1.7 that recently fueled another growth in Michigan – and a widespread sense of pandemic fatigue as contributing factors.
India will provide Covid-19 vaccines to all people over the age of 18 in May

Meanwhile, in Europe, there are some signs of a plateau in the continent’s third wave of infections, and the launch of a vaccine has begun to accelerate across the European Union.

But the hesitation of the vaccine and the persistent effects of previous vaccine scares are still evident; a mass vaccination center in the southern French city of Nice has been forced to close early this weekend after only 58 people showed up for 4,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine – which can be linked to a very small number of cases blood clots are rare – a spokesman for the regional police told CNN.

European regulators are also facing another decision on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which the US authorities have discontinued after a handful of coagulation cases have been reported. A decision by the European Medicines Agency on shooting is expected on Tuesday.

CNN’s Naomi Thomas, Christina Maxouris and Saskya Vandoorne contributed to the reporting

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