The World Health Organization said that as the Corona virus continues to develop, the resulting mutations cannot be overlooked, warning that lower numbers of cases and deaths do not necessarily mean that “the risks are lower.”
The past week witnessed the lowest number of corona deaths since the early days of the pandemic, but some countries are still witnessing “dangerous rises” that put pressure on the health sector.
And the United Nations News website quoted the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as saying: “Our ability to monitor trends is at risk as testing is significantly reduced.”
The Director-General reiterated that higher rates of testing and sequencing are necessary for scientists to track existing mutations and identify new ones as they emerge.
“Currently, there are a number of Omicron subspecies that we follow closely,” he added.
“There are less than 200 sequences available so far and we expect this to change … We are tracking the virus closely to see if there has been any increase in case detection, but we have not seen Any change in the epidemiology (of this virus) or its severity.”