The World Health Organization (WHO) considered this Tuesday “more than tragic“The half million deaths from coronavirus in the world after the appearance of the Omicron variant.
“When everyone said that Omicron was more benign, we forgot that half a million people have died since the variant was detected“said the incident manager at WHO, abdi mahamudaccording to the AFP agency.
“In the era of effective vaccines, half a million people die and it is truly something (…) more than tragic,” added the WHO official in a social media meeting promoted by the organization.
According to Mahamud, 130 million cases and 500,000 deaths have been registered in the world since Omicron was considered “worrying” by the WHO, at the end of last November.
Live Q&A on #COVID19 and Omicron sub-variant BA.2 with Dr @mvankerkhove and @DrAbdiMahamud. #AskWHO https://t.co/NVQMa8HHk7
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 8, 2022
“In the era of effective vaccines, half a million people dying, it is really impossible,” Mahamud said on the WHO’s social media channels, according to the ANSA agency.
For its part, Mary Van KerkhoveWHO’s technical manager for the coronavirus, pointed out that the absolute number of Ómicron cases is “impressive”.
That variant quickly overtook Delta as the world’s dominant variant, as it is more contagious but appears to cause less severe illness.
The coronavirus has killed 5.75 million people since its appearance in China in December 2019, according to an AFP count on Tuesday, from official sources.
