Ginebra. After five weeks of declines, reported coronavirus deaths worldwide grew 4 percent last week, according to the World Health Organization.
In its weekly report on the pandemic, the United Nations health agency said Thursday that 8,700 people died from Covid-19 last week, with increases of 21 percent in the Americas and 17 percent in the Western Pacific.
Coronavirus cases continued to fall, with some 3.2 million new cases reported last week, extending a downward trend from the January peak. Even so, there were significant spikes in infections in some regions. The Middle East and Southeast Asia reported increases of 58 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
“As many countries have reduced surveillance and testing, we know this number is underestimated,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week. “There is no acceptable level of deaths from covid-19,” he added, given that the global community already has the vaccines, medicines and diagnostic tools to curb the virus.
Although many wealthy countries in Europe and North America have abandoned most of their virus restrictions, China’s extreme policy has meant more mass testing, quarantine and isolation for anyone who came into contact with an infected person.
The Chinese capital moved classes online again this week in one of its main districts after a new outbreak of covid-19 associated with a nightclub. Beijingers continue to take regular tests, most every two days, and must wear masks and show an app on their cell phone to access public spaces and facilitate case tracking.
China has maintained its “zero covid” policy despite considerable economic costs and a claim by the head of the World Health Organization that the policy is not sustainable.
U.S. officials took another step this week toward authorizing coronavirus vaccines for younger children, after Food and Drug Administration advisers
Medicines of the United States (FDA, for its acronym in English) gave the green light to Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for children under five years of age.
Outside experts unanimously voted that the benefits of injections outweighed any risks for those under five, some 18 million children. They are the last age group in the United States without access to Covid-19 vaccines, and many parents were anxiously awaiting the vaccine to protect their little ones.
If all the formalities are passed, the vaccines should be available next week.
–
