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Rabat – The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning that COVID-19 cases are again on the rise, despite a noticeable reduction in testing and preventative measures by governments around the world.
At the WHO’s weekly COVID-19 press briefing on March 16, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus opened his remarks by warning that “after several weeks of declines, reported cases of COVID-19 are once again increasing globally, especially in parts of Asia.”
“These increases are occurring despite reductions in testing in some countries,” Dr Tedros stated, adding that this “means the cases we are seeing are just the tip of the iceberg, and we know that when cases increase, so do deaths.”
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He described current waning public health measures in many countries as creating “unacceptably high levels of mortality in many countries, especially where vaccination levels are low among susceptible populations.”
The WHO recommends that all individuals get vaccinated if possible, and advises that governments “continue to vaccinate, test, sequence, provide early care for patients, and apply common-sense public health measures to protect health workers and the public.”
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Over the past week, Europe reported more than 5.3 million new cases to the WHO, while the Western Pacific region saw 6.1 million new cases emerge. Yet, the WHO’s warning about low testing is likely to impact global numbers, with Africa only reporting 28,989 cases, a fraction of the new cases detected in many Western countries.
Signs of a new wave in Morocco appear to not have materialized yet, with 52 new cases found on Friday, March 19. The Moroccan government issued 7,201 tests and reported the limited number of detected cases together with the positive news of no related COVID-19 deaths.
