The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the global rise in coronavirus cases might be the tip of the iceberg, with some countries reporting low testing rates.
New infections jumped 8% globally last week, compared to the previous week.
“Sudden increases are expected, especially in areas where transmission prevention measures have been lifted,” Tedros told reporters. “However, there are unacceptably high levels of mortality in many countries.”
For her part, WHO technical official on the pandemic, Maria Van Kerkhove, said that a combination of factors caused an increase in infections, including the highly contagious Omicron mutant, the lifting of public health measures and social restrictions.