They warned that in Europe, more than 20% of tests are positive and fear the emergence of new variants. They emphasize the need to continue receiving booster shots.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that COVID-19 coronavirus infections are increasing around the world, including at the Olympic Games in Paris, and are unlikely to slow down soon, the agency reports. IPS from Geneva.
The epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhovefrom the WHO’s health emergencies program, said at a press conference that SARS-CoV-2 virus infections are still very present in the Swiss city and are circulating in all nations.
“Data from our sentinel surveillance system in 84 countries indicate that the percentage of positive tests for SARS-CoV-2 has been increasing for several weeks,” Van Kerkhove said in a statement cited by Journalists In Spanish.com.
“Overall, the positivity rate is above 10%, but it fluctuates by region. In Europe, the positivity rate is above 20%,” he said, adding that new waves of infection have also been recorded in the Americas and the Western Pacific.
High rates of infection circulation in the Northern Hemisphere summer months are atypical for respiratory viruses, which tend to spread primarily in cold temperatures.
“In recent months, regardless of the season, many countries have experienced surges in COVID-19, including at the Olympic Games, where at least forty athletes tested positive,” says Van Kerkhove.
The WHO also said that wastewater monitoring suggests the virus is circulating between two and twenty times higher than current figures suggest.
As the coronavirus continues to evolve and spread, there is a growing risk of a more severe variant of the virus emerging that could evade detection systems and not respond to medical intervention, it said.
