The World Health Organization said on Thursday that as the omicron variant of the coronavirus swept the world, a record 9.5 million COVID-19 cases were recorded last week, a 71% increase from the previous 7-day period compared by the United Nations health agency. ” Tsunami”. However, the number of deaths recorded every week has declined.

WHO Director-General Tan Desai said: “Last week, the number of COVID-19 cases reported in the pandemic was the highest so far.” He said that the WHO determined this was an underestimation because of the backlog of testing around the year-end holiday.

The agency stated in its weekly report on the pandemic that there were 9,520,488 new cases per week — 41,178 deaths last week, compared with 44,680 the previous week.

WHO officials have long cited the lag between the number of cases and the number of deaths, and the change in the number of deaths often lags behind the change in the number of cases by about two weeks. But they also noticed that due to several reasons—including increased vaccination rates in certain places, and signs that omicron has a greater impact on the nose and throat than on the lungs—omicron has not changed like the previous delta. The body is so deadly.

After the recent surge in cases, any increase in hospitalizations or deaths is unlikely to occur in about two weeks.

Although omicron does not seem to be as serious as delta, especially in people who have been vaccinated, the head of the WHO warned: “This does not mean that it should be classified as mild. Just like the previous variants, omicron is Hospitalized and killing people.”

The head of the WHO said at a regular press conference: “In fact, the tsunami of cases is so huge and rapid that health systems around the world are overwhelmed.”

According to the WHO, the rise in the number of cases last week varied. The Americas doubled, but the African region only increased by 7%.

Dr. Michael Ryan, the head of emergency affairs at WHO, said that speculation that omicron might be the last variant of the epidemic was “wishful thinking” and warned that “this virus still has a lot of energy.”

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s head of COVID-19 technology, added: “I think omicron is unlikely to be the last variant you hear of our discussion.”

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WHO officials are calling on the public to step up measures to fight the pandemic, such as vaccinations, ventilating rooms, maintaining proper physical distance and wearing masks-but appropriate.

“I’m shocked by the way people wear masks,” Van Khoff said.

“Wearing a mask under the chin is useless. It will give you a false sense of security, thinking that you have something to protect you. It will not… Basically, we ask everyone to participate.”

In addition, Ryan stated that the WHO’s cooperation with the International Olympic Committee and China (which will host the 2022 Winter Olympics) made him “convinced” that the measures taken by the Olympic organizers were “very strict and very powerful.” “

“In this case, we are currently not seeing any increased risk of disease transmission,” Ryan said.