Stay alert amid rise in global Covid-19 cases

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned this week that Covid-19 cases are rising globally once again despite testing levels having dropped significantly. This is a double whammy since more testing might well have revealed the existence of more cases than even the high numbers reported. Several worrying factors appear to be behind it. These range from many countries lifting social restrictions and safe management measures because of the reach of their vaccination programmes, to the fact that there are nations where access to vaccines remains significantly limited or uneven. Additionally, although booster shots undoubtedly provide protection, their efficacy cannot but wane over time. At the psychological level, the notion that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is somehow not as serious, because infections tend to be mild, is misleading because the BA.2 sub-variant is extremely infectious. Indeed, the reputed "mildness" of Omicron offers no comfort to the unvaccinated in places where the take-up rate for jabs is low.

Combine this with the removal of restrictions elsewhere and the gradual but determined resumption of international travel, and the world has the makings of an epidemiological storm that the WHO is only right to be concerned about. It is fanciful to believe that Covid-19 is on the wane, particularly in the Western Pacific, a region to which the WHO has drawn special attention. China, which is witnessing its biggest Covid-19 surge, has responded by placing 30 million people under various levels of lockdown. Surprisingly, however, South Korea is set to end restrictions despite a record surge in new daily cases and daily deaths.