Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General said Middle-East and Asia have seen a surge in deaths while hospitalisation are increasing in Europe.

Covid-19 Hospitalization And Deaths: Just when the entire world was heaving a sigh of relief, and quite literally, over the reports of COVID-19 waning away, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, September 6 said that COVID-19 deaths and hospitalisations are increasing in several parts of the world and urged countries to better share information and data.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General said Middle-East and Asia have seen a surge in deaths while hospitalisation are increasing in Europe.

“We continue to see concerning trends for Covid-19 ahead of the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“Deaths are increasing in some parts of the Middle East and Asia, intensive care unit admissions are increasing in Europe and hospitalisations are increasing in several regions,” he said.

Only 43 countries are reporting COVID deaths to the agency, and only 20 provide information about hospitalisations, he added, explaining that currently there is no single dominant COVID variant worldwide, but the EG.5 Omicron subvariant is on the rise. Small numbers of the highly mutated BA.2.86 subvariant have also now been detected in 11 countries, he said.

The WHO is “monitoring this variant closely to assess its transmissibility and potential impact,” he continued, asserting that one of WHO’s biggest concerns was how few at-risk people had recently received a COVID jab.

“The increase in hospitalisations and deaths shows that COVID-19 is here to stay, and that we will continue to need tools to fight it,” he said.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the Technical lead for COVID-19 said this trend was worrying as cold months are coming in the northern hemisphere, a period where people tend to stay indoors, which gives an advantage to viruses to spread faster adding that WHO estimated that “hundreds of thousands of people” are in hospital now because of COVID-19.

“We estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of people in hospital now for Covid. That is a worry given that when we get to colder months, in some countries, people tend to spend more time indoors together, and viruses that transmit through the air like Covid will take advantage of that,” said Kerkhove.

In May 2023, the health agency ended the global emergency status for COVID-19 more than three years after its original declaration.

With influenza and RSV also circulating, Maria Van Kerkhove emphasised on the importance of testing as well as vaccination.

Preliminary data suggests that existing vaccines will give protection against BA.2.86, she informed.

(With inputs from agencies)