The World Health Organization ’s emergency committee on Covid-19 on Thursday warned that the pandemic was not over and that it continued to...
The World Health Organization’s emergency committee on Covid-19 on Thursday warned that the pandemic was not over and that it continued to evolve with four variants of concern.
“The committee recognised the strong likelihood for the emergence and global spread of new and possibly more dangerous variants of concern that may be even more challenging to control,” the panel said in a statement.
The committee said that the pandemic was still an “extraordinary event” that continues to adversely affect public health, and needs a coordinated international response. The statement also said that the committee emphasised on the risk of emergency of new zoonotic diseases during the pandemic. Zoonotic diseases are caused by germs that spread between animals and people, according to United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Animals usually spread it to people and cause illness.
The statement came amid a surge in Delta variant cases around the world. Earlier in the day, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had told the emergency committee that the Delta variant is now found in more than 111 countries and is expected that it will soon be the dominant Covid-19 strain circulating worldwide.
The global health body had designated the Delta strain, first detected in India, as a variant of concern on May 11. In...
