WHO epidemiologist warns against more transmissible COVID variants

Maria Van Kerkhove, Infectious Disease Epidemiologist, who works with the WHO on prevention of COVID, shared a thread on twitter on the rising cases and how following basic guidelines could help prevent spread and deaths.

Kerkhove said there has been a 15% rise in COVID cases and a 35% jump in deaths in the last four weeks globally. She said that the cases would continue to occur given the limited use of public health and social measures.

Highlighting the challenge around determining new variants, she said that the lack of surveillance, testing and sequencing is making the task challenging.


At the moment, BA5 remains the the dominant circulating variant of concern, she said.

Cautioning against more such variants, she said that the virus still doesn't have a seasonality or act predictably. Those variants in the future could be more transmissible or have a higher immune escape but nothing can be said about the severity, she pointed out.


Drawing attention towards the need for rapid vaccination, she said that the jabs among those at risk is still not as high as it should have been.

Talking about simple measures that can be followed to minimise the risk of infections and Long Covid, she aid testing, right clinical care and treatments are crucial to save lives.

She urged governments to reach out to those who are at risk.

"COVID-19 vaccines are working incredibly well at preventing severe disease. Get vaccinated and get all recommended doses when it’s your turn. Governments need to focus on reaching at missed risk people."