Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Global COVID-19 Infection Rate Approaches Record High, WHO Warns

VOA News

   The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 cases are
   increasing globally at a worrying rate, with the number of new cases
   doubling each week, a pace approaching the highest rate of infection
   since the pandemic began.

   The WHO said Friday there were 541,960 new cases in the past week. On
   February 22 -- the week new cases began to tick up after six weeks of
   decline -- 194,469 new cases were reported.

   At a virtual briefing at the agency's headquarters in Geneva, WHO
   Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said countries that had
   avoided widespread infections are now seeing steep increases.

   He pointed to Papua New Guinea, which, until the beginning of this
   year, had reported less than 900 cases and only nine deaths. The nation
   has now reported more than 9,300 cases and 82 deaths.
   FILE - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, speaks in
   Geneva, Jan. 21, 2021.

   Tedros said that while that is a small number relative to other
   countries, the dramatic rate of new infections has the WHO very
   concerned about the potential for a larger epidemic in Papua New
   Guinea. He said the WHO began a vaccine rollout in the nation late last
   month and three emergency medical teams had arrived in the country this
   week from Australia, the United States and Germany.

   The WHO chief said Papua New Guinea is an excellent example of why
   vaccine equity is so important. The small south Pacific nation, just
   north of Australia, was able to keep the pandemic at bay for a long
   time, but eventually rising infections hit at a time of social
   restriction fatigue and low levels of immunity among the population and
   began to overwhelm a fragile health care system.

   Tedros said Papua New Guinea has relied on vaccine donations from
   Australia and the WHO-supported vaccine cooperative COVAX initiative
   for support.

   To date, COVAX has shipped about 40 million doses to more than 100
   countries, or enough to protect about 0.25% of the world's population.