WHO warns of concerning Covid trends ahead of winter in Northern Hemisphere

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday (September 6) warned of concerning trends for Covid ahead of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and called for increased vaccinations and surveillance. Addressing a press conference, WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "We continue to see concerning trends for COVID-19 ahead of the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere."

Ghebreyesus said that deaths were increasing in some parts of the Middle East and Asia, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions were increasing in Europe and hospitalisations were increasing in several regions.

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However, the WHO chief pointed out that only 43 countries (out of the 194 member states) were reporting deaths to the agency, and only 20 provided information about hospitalisations.

'Hundreds of thousands hospitalised for Covid': WHO

During Wednesday's press conference, WHO's technical lead on Covid Maria Van Kerkhove said the agency estimated that there were hundreds of thousands of people hospitalised for the virus.

"That is a worry given that when we get to colder months, in some countries, people tend to spend more time indoors together, and viruses that transmit through the air like Covid will take advantage of that," Kerkhove added. She further emphasised the importance of testing as well as vaccination.

Meanwhile, Ghebreyesus also told reporters on Wednesday that there was not currently a single dominant variant of the virus worldwide but the EG.5 Omicron subvariant was on the rise.

"Small numbers of the highly mutated BA.2.86 subvariant have also now been detected in 11 countries," Tedros said, adding the WHO was monitoring this variant to assess its transmissibility and potential impact.

"The increase in hospitalisations and deaths shows that COVID-19 is here to stay, and that we will continue to need tools to fight it," he also said.

WHO's Covid knowledge-sharing platform secures 3 license agreements

Last week, the WHO's global Covid knowledge-sharing platform called COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) securedthree new licensing agreements to transfer vaccine technologies. According to a report by the news agency AFP on August 29, the C-TAP had until now secured licensing agreements with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) for an antibody test, and with the US National Institute of Health (NIH) for the development of therapeutics, early-stage vaccines and diagnostic tools.

However, the WHO said the number of agreements doubled with the CSIC providing a second one -- this time for a COVID-19 vaccine prototype -- and the University of Chile providing one for a test of Covid antibody neutralisation levels.

(With inputs from agencies)

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