Second year of pandemic “could be even harder”: Ryan from WHO

GENEVA (Reuters) – The second year of the COVID-19 pandemic may be more difficult than the first, given the spread of the new coronavirus, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, as more contagious variants are circulating, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday .

“We are entering a second year of this, it could be even more difficult given the transmission dynamics and some of the issues we are seeing,” Mike Ryan, WHO’s senior emergency officer, said at a social media event.

The global death toll is approaching 2 million people since the start of the pandemic, with 91.5 million people infected.

The WHO said in its latest overnight epidemiological update, that after two weeks of fewer cases being reported, about five million new cases were reported last week, the likely result of a defense’s disappointment during the holidays when people – and the virus – came together.

“Certainly in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in Europe and North America, we’ve seen that kind of perfect storm of the season – cold, people going in, increased social mixing, and a combination of factors that are common in many, many countries. led to increased transfer, ‘said Ryan.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical leader for COVID-19, warned: “After the holidays, the situation will get a lot worse in some countries before it gets better.”

Amid growing fears of the more contagious variant of coronavirus first discovered in Britain but now entrenched globally, governments across Europe announced tougher, longer coronavirus restrictions on Wednesday.

That includes requirements for home offices and store closings in Switzerland, an extended Italian COVID-19 emergency, and German efforts to further reduce contacts between people so far blamed for failed attempts to control the coronavirus.

“I am afraid that we will stay in this pattern of peak and trough and peak and trough, and that we can do better,” said Van Kerkhove.

She called for physical distance and added, “The farther, the better … but make sure you keep that distance from people outside of your immediate household.”