GENEVA (Reuters) – The number of new COVID-19 cases per week has nearly doubled worldwide in the past two months, setting the highest rate so far in the pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
“Cases and deaths continue to rise at alarming rates,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a briefing focused on Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the western Pacific region.
He said he was very concerned about the potential for a much bigger epidemic in PNG, and it was vital that the country received more COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible.
PNG has now reported more than 9,300 COVID-19 cases and 82 deaths. “Although these numbers are still smaller than other countries, the increase is sharp and WHO is very concerned about the potential for a much larger epidemic,” Tedros said.
PNG Health Minister Jelta Wong said there was an ongoing challenge in the country to get people wearing masks and disbelief about the disease itself, which would hamper efforts to eradicate vaccines.
WHO officials said three medical emergency teams arrived in PNG this week in Australia, the United States and Germany.
“The situation at the moment is extremely challenging,” Takeshi Kasai, WHO’s regional director for the western Pacific, said of PNG.
(Posted by Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay and Emma Farge. Edited by Mark Potter)