WHO Says Global COVID-19 Infection Rate Plateaued

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2021) The global coronavirus infection rate has plateaued at roughly 4.5 million cases a week, the WHO's technical lead for COVID-19 said on Tuesday.

"We have reached a plateau of cases all over the world, but that plateau is at a fairly high level of intensity. So there are about 4.4-4.5 million cases every week, and this is certainly an underestimate of the true number of cases that do occur globally," Maria Van Kerkhove said at a Q&A session that was broadcast on social media.

The expert went on to warn that it is too early to become complacent.

"We are definitely still in the middle of the pandemic. We all want it to be over and many people are acting like it is over, it is not over," she added.

The epidemiologist noted a spike in COVID-19 cases and fatalities in North and South America, while in Europe the infection rate is going down but fatalities are up. In Asia, both indicators are trending down.