The World Health Organization’s director has said that the mixing of Delta and Omicron variants is triggering a deadly tsunami of Covid-19 infections.
The warning from the World Health Organization’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus came as the United States and other countries around Europe reported a record number of new infections.
The number of cases in Europe rose to 208,000 on the second day in a row, according to France reports.
According to Johns Hopkins University, there were a record-breaking 265,427 cases reported per day in the United States throughout the past week.
Denmark, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Australia have all set new records. On Wednesday, Poland reported 794 Covid-related fatalities in the country’s fourth wave of the pandemic, which was its highest total. Over 75% of these individuals were unvaccinated.
Omicron, which has swiftly taken hold in numerous countries, appears to be less harsh than the Delta form, according to research.
The number of people contracting the virus appears to be on the rise, with French health minister Olivier Véran telling reporters that he would no longer use the term “wave” when referring to Omicron but a “tidal wave.”
Dr Tedros, on the other hand, warned that the combined case load of both variants was the “twin threat.”
“This will and is continuing to put a tremendous amount of stress on exhausted health workers, as well as health systems on the verge of collapse,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Some 900,000 new cases are reported every day around the world at the moment, according to Reuters news agency.
According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States, infections from Omicron viruses are likely to peak at the end of January in America, given its population size and vaccination rate.
Several wealthy countries have launched booster campaigns to provide third doses of Covid vaccines, including the United Kingdom, where 57% of people over the age of 12 have already been vaccinated.
Dr Tedros, however, informed journalists that richer nations’ large-scale booster campaigns were “quite likely” to prolong the pandemic since they redirected supplies from poorer, less vaccinated countries, allowing the infection to spread and mutate more freely.
He added, “Every year at this time, I urge everyone to make a New Year’s resolution to get behind the campaign to immunize 70% of the world by mid-2022.”
More than 100 countries have yet to reach the initial goal of immunizing 40% of their people, according to the World Health Organization.
The number of new Covid infections of all types grew by 57 percent in Europe and 30% in the Americas over the week before 26 December, according to a WHO publication issued on Tuesday.
Several of the record highs, however, are considered to be partly due to reporting delays around Christmas.
Staff shortages in some critical services have occurred as a consequence of the epidemic, owing to individuals isolating themselves out of fear of spreading it.
The Fire Brigades Union in the United Kingdom claims that a third of London’s fire engines were off service on Monday due to staff testing positive for coronavirus or being forced to isolate themselves.
In the US state of Texas, National Guard personnel are assisting in operations at several juvenile detention centers.
On Wednesday, Spain reduced its isolation period from 10 days to seven in order to relieve staffing shortages.
The US has already limited the time period to just a few days, while in the UK, persons who test negative for two days will be permitted to leave isolation after a week.