“ALARMING DECLINE” IN VACCINATION
The cases at the Olympics underline the current circulation of the virus, with the WHO concerned about how vaccination against developing severe COVID-19 disease has dropped off.
“Over the last two years, we have seen an alarming decline in vaccine coverage, especially among health workers and people over 60 – two of the most at-risk groups. This urgently needs to be turned around,” said Van Kerkhove, branding their current coverage rates “abysmal”.
The UN health agency urged people to ensure they had received a COVID-19 vaccination dose in the last 12 months – especially those at higher risk.
It recommended administering COVID-19 jabs alongside seasonal influenza vaccines to boost coverage.
“Our worry is … with such low coverage and with such large circulation if we were to have a variant that would be more severe, then the susceptibility of the at-risk populations to develop severe disease is huge,” Van Kerkhove explained.
Furthermore, about six per cent of symptomatic cases go on to develop post-Covid conditions, or Long Covid, causing a “massive burden” for health services.
Post-pandemic, “the perception that COVID is gone is real … but the virus isn’t gone,” Van Kerkhove stressed.
