Foreign News
COVID-19: Omicron Spreading Faster than Delta Variant- WHO
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says there is now “consistent evidence” that the Omicron variant was outpacing Delta, as COVID-19 continues to account for around 50,000 deaths worldwide every week.
WHO Director General, Tedros Ghebreyesus told journalists at the agency’s Headquarters in Geneva that it was also more likely that people who had been vaccinated, or recovered from the virus, could be infected, or re-infected.
“There can be no doubt that increased social mixing over the holiday period in many countries will lead to increased cases, overwhelm health systems and more deaths.
“All of us are sick of this pandemic. All of us want to spend time with friends and family. All of us want to get back to normal.
“The fastest way to do that is for all of us – leaders and individuals – to make the difficult decisions that must be made to protect ourselves and others,” he said.
He said delaying or cancelling events, was the responsible thing to do: “An event cancelled is better than a life cancelled. It’s better to cancel now and celebrate later, than to celebrate now and grieve later.”
More than 3.3 million people have lost their lives to COVID-19 this year – more deaths than from HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined in 2020, and Africa was now facing a steep wave of infections, driven largely by the Omicron variant.
Just a month ago, Africa was reporting its lowest number of cases in 18 months, Ghebreyesus reminded reporters on Monday, whereas last week, it reported the fourth-highest number of cases in a single week so far.
“None of us want to be here again in 12 months’ time, talking about missed opportunities, continued inequity, or new variants,” he said.
The director general emphasised that for the pandemic to end in 2022, “we must end inequity, by ensuring 70 per cent of the population of every country is vaccinated by the middle of next year.”
Around the world, the WHO was working with countries to restore and sustain essential health services disrupted by the pandemic.
According to new data released this year, 23 million children missed out on routine vaccines in 2020, the largest number in over a decade, increasing risks from preventable diseases like measles and polio, the UN correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported.
Progress is, however, still being made in many other areas of healthcare and medicine.
Five countries were able to introduce the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) to prevent cervical cancer, and a further nine are planning to introduce it over the next six months, and in September, WHO launched a global road map to defeat meningitis by 2030.
The pandemic has also caused setbacks in the agency’s efforts to defeat the world’s leading infectious diseases, with an estimated 14 million more malaria cases and 47 thousand more malaria deaths in 2020, compared to 2019.
“However, WHO certified two countries – China and El Salvador – as malaria-free this year, and a further 25 are on track to end malaria transmission by 2025,” Ghebreyesus said.
He said the WHO also made an historic recommendation for broad use of the world’s first malaria vaccine.
Services for non-communicable diseases have also been hit, with more than half of countries surveyed between June and October, reporting disruptions to services for diabetes, cancer screening and treatment, and management of hypertension.
Summing up a tumultuous year, he also noted that several important steps had been taken to strengthen the global health architecture, and WHO itself.
“We launched the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin; We broke ground on the WHO Academy in Lyon; We established the WHO BioHub System,” he said.
In early December, Member States agreed to negotiate the world’s first new agreement on pandemic preparedness and response.
“We have also taken decisive steps to address instances of sexual exploitation and abuse and to make sure that our people meet the high standards that we, and our Member States, expect of them.
“We took decisive steps to address sexual exploitation, following shocking revelations of alleged abuse committed by some WHO staff during the deadly tenth Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,’’ he said.
“2022 must be the year we end the pandemic,” said the director general, but to prevent a future disaster on the same scale, all countries must invest in resilient health systems, build on primary care, with universal health coverage as the goal.
“When people can’t access the services they need, or can’t afford them, individuals, families, communities and entire societies are put at risk.
“In the year ahead, WHO is committed to doing everything in our power to end the pandemic, and to beginning a new era in global health – an era in which health is at the centre of every country’s development plans,” he said. (NAN)
By Eze Okechukwu, Abuja
The Senate yesterday ordered mandatory health screening for every international passenger arriving Nigeria airports, seaports, land borders as Ebola resurfaces in the Democratic Republic of Congo with a scare case reported in the FCT.
The resolution followed an urgent motion by Senator Francis Fadahunsi, who warned that with Lassa fever already ravaging states, Nigeria cannot afford another outbreak.
“Protecting our entry points is far cheaper than managing Ebola,” Fadahunsi told the chamber.
Lawmakers insisted screening must be total and indiscriminate — no exemptions based on nationality or departure country because infected travellers can transit through safe-listed nations.
Senator Diket Plang raised the stakes further, demanding immediate funding for NCDC and Port Health Services, including release of withheld funds and emergency budget.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio said the Federal Government has started releasing Ebola response funds but ordered relevant committees to track every kobo.
“Ascertain whether the funds were released and judiciously utilised. Any outstanding debt must be released by the Finance Ministry without delay,” Akpabio directed.
At least 72 civilians who had been prospecting for gold in a border region of Sudan have been killed in air strikes, a regional rights group said.
Emergency Lawyers, based in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, said jets targeted the so-called artisanal miners at a popular gold mining site on Saturday.
Neither the Egyptian government nor the de facto Sudanese authorities have so far commented.
Cairo has previously faced accusations of deadly strikes on gold prospectors as part of a crackdown on illicit activity along its southern border.
Emergency Lawyers noted the previous alleged attacks and said they represented not only a violation of Sudan’s sovereign territory but demonstrated the government’s lack of control over the region.
“The deliberate targeting of unarmed civilians violates international humanitarian law and the right to life,” it said in a statement on Sunday. “These acts may constitute war crimes.”
It noted that its death toll was provisional and could rise.
The Paris-based Sudan Tribune reported that the death toll could far exceed the number reported by Emergency Lawyers, citing a survivor of Saturday’s attack who said many more people had been injured.
Eyewitnesses said the attack began around 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT), with the aircraft firing more than five missiles directly at the miners’ camps, destroying them and excavation pits with people still inside, the newspaper wrote.
The Sudan Tribune reported claims in June that Egyptian forces had used drones and artillery to target artisanal mining sites in the same region, killing several, after sporadic incidents of Egyptian border guards of burning equipment, torching temporary shelters, and firing live ammunition to disperse mine workers.
Days later, Egypt’s border agency announced that it and the military had begun a sweeping security campaign along the border to foil illegal migration, drug smuggling and illegal mining.
At the same time, Sudan’s de facto leader announced an investigation into the alleged strikes, which were said to have killed dozens.
Gold lies at the core of the border tensions.
Sudan’s ongoing civil war has led to a surge in artisanal mining – and often risky practice conducted by civilians with rudimentary tools and without official permission – particularly in remote areas near its borders.
Gold-rich areas lie along porous borders in terrain historically associated with cross-border smuggling routes, with artisanally mined gold potentially feeding into those channels.
Egypt’s border force said in June that it had seized 86 tonnes of gold ore along with amateur prospecting equipment.
Artisanal mining has also reportedly continued in Sudan’s conflict zones and smuggled gold may be a source of income for armed insurgent groups.
This has raised concerns of illicit Sudanese gold undermining the legitimate Egyptian gold market.
Several German fighter jets will take part in the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) annual nuclear defence exercise this week as troops from 17 countries take part in the Steadfast Noon drill.
The German Air Force said three Tornado jets will take part in the exercise hosted by Italy, which starts Tuesday and runs for about a week and a half.
The jets are normally stationed in Büchel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
NATO has not revealed the exercise scenario but said its scale would be comparable to last year’s drill, which involved around 2,000 personnel and more than 70 aircraft.
Last week, NATO’s head of nuclear policy, Nassima Barrows, said the exercise was designed to demonstrate the alliance’s readiness and ability to defend its territory.
No real nuclear weapons will be used, she added.
NATO said the exercise was not linked to current events or directed at any specific country.
Military experts say the drills, held regularly in October, include practising the safe transport of weapons from underground storage facilities to aircraft and mounting them on fighter jets.
Only practice bombs without real nuclear warheads are used during the drills.
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