At least one person died of complications related to COVID-19 on the average last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, stated this on Monday in his opening remarks at the 150th session of the global agency’s Executive Board in Geneva, Switzerland.
He informed the session that it was already two years since WHO declared COVID-19 a global health emergency. “This Sunday marks two years since I declared a public health emergency of international concern – the highest level of alarm under international law – over the spread of COVID-19,” said Ghebreyesus. “At the time, there were fewer than 100 cases and no deaths reported outside China.
“Two years later, almost 350 million cases have been reported, and more than 5.5 million deaths – and we know these numbers are an underestimate. On average last week, 100 cases were reported every three seconds, and somebody lost their life to COVID-19 every 12 seconds.
“Since Omicron was first identified just nine weeks ago, more than 80 million cases have been reported to WHO – more than were reported in the whole of 2020. So far, the explosion in cases has not been matched by a surge in deaths, although deaths are increasing in all regions, especially in Africa, the region with the least access to vaccines.”