Jenewa, The Indonesian Post – Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) stressed Wednesday that vaccines are still highly effective against COVID-19, even as new variants of the disease emerge in South Africa and the United States.
WHO data shows that COVID-19 cases worldwide are gradually declining, with weekly deaths reported at their lowest level since March 2020.
However, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned at a news conference on Wednesday that the trend is not telling the full story.
“Driven by the Omicron subvariance, we are seeing an increase in the number of reported cases in the Americas and Africa. The South African scientists who identified Omicron late last year are now reporting two other Omicron subvariants, namely BA.4 and BA.5, as the cause of the disease. spike in cases in South Africa,” he said.
“It is too early to know whether the two subvariants can cause more severe disease than the other Omicron subvariants, but preliminary data suggest that vaccination still provides protection against severe disease and death,” he said.
According to Maria van Kerkhove of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, BA.4 and BA.5 were detected in a number of countries. WHO is still evaluating the severity of the two new variants.
However, van Kerkhove said it was not possible to say for sure whether BA.4 and BA.5 caused the increase in the number of hospitalizations, as the increase could be due to a general spike in the number of cases in South Africa.
“Vaccines are still functioning very well against severe disease and death,” she said.
She also urged continued monitoring and testing for COVID-19 so that WHO could provide the public with as accurate information and advice as possible. (ojn/bbs)
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