Global Covid virus deaths to top hundred thousand a week: WHO
Global deaths from COVID-19 are expected to top 100,000 per week “very soon”, from more than 93,000 reported last week, the World Health Organisation’s top emergency expert Mike Ryan said on Monday.
In an epidemiological update provided to the WHO’s executive board meeting, he added that the Americas region accounted for about 47 per cent of current deaths. In Europe, cases and deaths are stabilising but at a high level, he said.
“Currently our epidemiological situation is dynamic and uneven, it’s further complicated by variants,” he told the board.
Meanwhile, during the meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the world is on the brink of “catastrophic moral failure” in sharing COVID-19 vaccines, as he urged countries and manufacturers to spread doses more fairly around the world.
Britain currently has the worst #COVID19 death rate in the world.
https://t.co/ArhvyUjuEo— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) January 19, 2021
Ghebreyesus said the prospects for equitable distribution were at “serious risk” just as its COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme aimed to start distributing inoculations next month.
In Los Angeles County, limits on cremations have been lifted in order to assist crematoriums with a “backlog” caused by COVID-19 deaths.
So many people have died they need permission to cremate more bodies. Cremations pollute the air so they needed a regulator to lift limits. pic.twitter.com/dNWBHL831I
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 19, 2021
He noted 44 bilateral deals were signed last year and at least 12 have already been signed this year.
“This could delay COVAX deliveries and create exactly the scenario COVAX was designed to avoid, with hoarding, a chaotic market, an uncoordinated response and continued social and economic disruption,” he said.
More messages from NHS 🏴 doctors today. One senior clinician in South Wales: “Worth asking if the deliberate withholding of vaccine from frontline staff would be a criminal act if one of the frontline staff now dies of COVID.” @fmwales pic.twitter.com/vokzygpdLq
— Huw Edwards (@huwbbc) January 19, 2021
Such a “me-first approach” left the world’s poorest and most vulnerable at risk, he said at the opening of the body’s annual Executive Board meeting in a virtual format.
“Ultimately these actions will only prolong the pandemic,” he added, urging countries to avoid making the same mistakes made during the H1N1 and HIV pandemics.
Anyone notice now that the election is over they stopped talking about all the Americans that died of Covid?
It’s almost like they were using those poor people death for political reason only.
— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) January 18, 2021
The global scramble for shots has intensified as more infectious virus variants circulate.
Tedros said more than 39 million vaccine doses had been administered in 49 higher-income countries whereas just 25 doses had been given in one poor country.
A delegate from Burkina Faso, on behalf of the African group, expressed concern at the meeting that a few countries had “hoovered up” most of the supplies.
Observers say this board meeting, which last until next Tuesday, is one of the most important in the UN health agency’s more than 70-year history and could shape its role in global health long after the pandemic ends.
On the agenda is reform of the body as well as its financing system, which was revealed as inadequate after its largest donor, the United States, announced its withdrawal last year.
“WHO has to remain relevant and … has to come out of this crisis with more strength than before,” said WHO Executive Board Vice-Chair Bjoern Kuemmel of Germany in comments last week.
But he expected resistance from some countries to pressure to boost financial contributions.
