Second year of pandemic ‘could be even harder’: WHO’s Ryan

GENEVA (Reuters) – The second year of the COVID-19 pandemic could be tougher than the first, given how the new coronavirus is spreading, especially in the northern hemisphere as more infectious variants circulate, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

“We are entering a second year of this, it could be even more difficult given the transmission dynamics and some of the problems we are seeing,” Mike Ryan, the WHO’s leading emergency official, said during an event on social media.

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

The WHO, in its latest overnight epidemiological update, said after two weeks of fewer cases were reported, there were about five million new cases reported last week, which was likely due to a disappointment of defense during the holiday season in which people – and the virus – – came together.

‘Certainly in the northern hemisphere, especially in Europe and North America, we have seen the perfect storm of the season – cold, people entering, increased social mixing and a combination of factors that have driven the spread in many, many countries , ”Ryan said.

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

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

These include the requirements of the home office and the closure of stores in Switzerland, an extensive state of emergency of the Italian COVID-19, and the German efforts to put contact between people who are to blame for the failed attempts to control the coronavirus get, further reduce.

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

She asked to maintain physical distance and added: “The farther, the better … but make sure you keep the distance of people outside your immediate household.”