- The World Health Organisation (WHO) is warning now isn’t the time to be complacent as global COVID-19 cases begin to fall
- Cases have been steadily falling across the last month, with Reuters reporting case numbers hit a five-month low on Tuesday this week
- However, WHO has warned even with multiple vaccines being rolled out worldwide, the pandemic is far from over
- The health organisation is concerned an easing of COVID-19 related restrictions could lead to new variants of the virus emerging which are vaccine-resistant
- There are already two new strains of COVID-19, which emerged in the U.K. and South Africa, with the latter proving to less effective against vaccine
- To date, more than 109 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported including 2.4 million deaths
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is warning against complacency as global COVID-19 cases begin to fall.
The overall number of COVID-19 infections gas been steadily falling across the last month, with Reuters reporting that case numbers hit a five-month low on Tuesday.
Source: John Hopkins University
However, WHO has warned against apathy, even as multiple coronavirus vaccines are being rolled out worldwide, stating that the pandemic is far from over.
“Now is not the time to let your guard down … we cannot let ourselves get into a situation where we have cases rise again,” said WHO Technical Lead for COVID-19 Maria Van Kerkhove.
The health organisation is concerned an easing of COVID-19 related restrictions could lead to new variants of the virus emerging which are vaccine-resistant.
There are already two new strains of COVID-19 circulating across the globe, which emerged from the U.K. and South Africa.
Both are considered to be more transmissible, and a preliminary trial has indicated the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine could be less effective against the South African strain.
To date, more than 109 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported to WHO, including 2.4 million deaths.
The U.S. continues to be the worst affected country in the world, with over 27 million cases recorded in the states since the pandemic began.
In Australia, the number is much lower, with just under 29,000 cases of COVID-19 recorded over the last year, including 909 deaths.