The World Health Organization (Oms) warns that the threat of «another virus emerging with even more deadly potential» remains, which is why it calls on the international community to «getting ready» the possibility of new pandemics emerging». This was stated by WHO director general Tedro Adhanom Ghebreyesus. «When the next one comes pandemicwhich will happen, we must be ready to respond decisively, collectively and fairly». According to the WHO, pandemics are far from the only threat facing «humanity has to face»but Ghebreyesus has assumed they will come «new pathogens and new pandemics», then urged world leaders to devise a strategy against these challenges. On the other hand, he stressed that the pandemic «it also came at a high cost to mental health. Many of our own employees, like many healthcare professionals around the world, have experienced severe stress and burnout as the pandemic has presented us with unprecedented challenges»added the doctor.
Furthermore, WHO has warned against the threat of another «emerging variant of Covid-19»which would cause «new waves of disease and deaths. The pandemic has led us off course, but it has shown us why the Sustainable Development Goals must remain our guiding light and why we must pursue them with the same urgency and determination with which we tackled the pandemic».
Covid in China, new wave of infections: “65 million cases a week in June”. The expert’s alarm. Bird emergency in Brazil
CHINA’S ALARM
Meanwhile, China is preparing to face a new wave of Covid-19 which will reach its peak at the end of June, with 65 million cases a week. This was claimed by Zhong Nanshan, considered the top Chinese expert on respiratory diseases, quoted by the Global Times. Zhong made these remarks during a scientific forum in Guangzhou also revealing that two new vaccines to counter the Xbb variant will soon be on the market and adding that probably three or four more will be approved soon. “In the development of more effective vaccines, we are ahead of other countries,” says the expert. Projections shown by Chinese expert Zhong Nanshan showed that in China a small peak of Covid-19 infections is likely as early as the end of May, with around 40 million infections per week. By the end of June, the epidemic is expected to reach around 65 million infections per week. According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), the infection rate of the Xbb variant rose from 0.2% in mid-February to 74.4% in late April and then to 83.6% of early May.
WHAT BASSETTI SAYS
«Certainly 65 million cases a week out of a population of 1.5 billion means quite important numbers. But we have to see the fallout, because we could have 5% of the population getting a form that is little more than a cold, different is to say they risk pneumonia. And I don’t think the latter is the result because with the Omicron variants we are dealing with less demanding forms of the disease. Today even XBB should not give important clinical consequences. Should we be concerned in Italy? I don’t think so, but they will manage their Covid wave in China”. So to beraking latest news Salute Matteo Bassetti, director of infectious diseases San Martino of Genoa, commenting on the new wave of XBB cases in China. «It is evident that» in China «they have a different vaccination coverage from ours, a large part of the Chinese were immunized 4-5 months ago and we know well that this immunity from Omicron lasts less than the vaccine. But that’s their problem. Demonstrating the fact that we have done well with vaccinations in Italy and in Europe », concludes Bassetti.
THE THOUGHT OF PREGLIASCO
“The XBB variants” of Sars-CoV-2, which in China are fueling a new Covid wave for which a peak of about 65 million cases per week is expected at the end of June, “certainly have characteristics of transmissibility and immunoevasion” such to make us predict “a possible rise in infections in 2-3 months too”. Fabrizio Pregliasco, a virologist at the State University of Milan, is waiting for it for the summer at the gates. But it will be “an insignificant increase, probably without a significant impact in terms of serious cases”, explains the expert to beraking latest news Salute. “The virus will remain with us – Pregliasco reiterates – with undulating and non-synchronous trends worldwide”, guided in the different areas of the world “by the levels of hybrid immunity acquired by the population (the mix between vaccination, infection and vaccination plus infection) and by the distance from the last wave. We are currently in a decreasing phase because we have undergone a wave of ascent a short time ago “, but in the near future “an increase is possible” with the decline in hybrid immunity, therefore with the increase in the pool of people vulnerable to contagion , and with the spread of transmissible and immunoevasive mutants such as Omicron XBB recombinants.
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