Desk,20-Jan; The number of Covid-19 cases globally rose by 20% or 1.8 crore in the last week, marking a slowdown in the surge driven by the new Omicron variant, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).In addition to this, it said that Southeast Asia had the biggest rise in coronavirus cases last week, with the number of newly infected people spiking by 145%. The Middle East saw a 68% weekly rise.The smallest increases were noted in the Americas and Europe, at 17% and 10% respectively.Scientists said last week there were early signs in the US and Britain that Omicron-driven outbreaks may have peaked in those countries and that cases could soon fall off sharply.The number of new Covid-19 infections increased in every region except for Africa, where cases fell by nearly a third, said the UN health agency in its weekly report on the pandemic.This comes as the WHO had said earlier last week that the fourth Covid-19 wave in Africa that was driven primarily by the Omicron variant seems to be flattening.“After a six-week surge, Africa’s fourth pandemic wave-driven primarily by the Omicron variant is flattening, marking the shortest-lived surge to date in the continent where cumulative cases have now exceeded 10 million,” said the health body.Meanwhile, the head of emergencies at the WHO said on Tuesday that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic — deaths, hospitalisations and lockdowns — could be over this year if huge inequities in vaccinations and medicines are addressed quickly.Dr Michael Ryan, speaking during a panel discussion on vaccine inequity hosted by the World Economic Forum, said “we may never end the virus” because such pandemic viruses “end up becoming part of the ecosystem.”But “we have a chance to end the public health emergency this year if we do the things that we’ve been talking about,” he said.Ryan told the virtual gathering of world and business leaders that if vaccines and other tools aren’t shared fairly, the tragedy of the virus, which has so far killed more than 5.5 million people worldwide, would continue.WHO has slammed the imbalance in Covid-19 vaccinations between rich and poor countries as a catastrophic moral failure? Fewer than 10% of people in lower-income countries have received even one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.(CNS)
