COVID-19

WHO tells nations not to let guard down

April 29, 2021 3:03 pm

India only late last year was flattening the curve and heading towards a safe zone, but as of today has over 200,000 deaths and a new record of 379,459 new cases in the last 24 hours. [Source: Khaleej Times]

As Fiji battles the B1617 variant of the COVID-19 virus, warning by our health authorities need to be taken seriously, if we are to make it out without a catastrophe.

The World Health Organization is warning countries such as Fiji, which is now facing the new variant to be wary of what COVID-19 can do.

This is based on how India only late last year was flattening the curve and heading towards a safe zone, but as of today has over 200,000 deaths and a new record of 379,459 new cases in the last 24 hours.

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WHO Technical Lead for COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, says the sudden growth in cases can destroy health care and people.

“Exponential growth that we have seen in case numbers is really truly astonishing. We have seen similar trajectories of increases in transmission in a number of countries. It has not been at the same scale and it has not been the same level of impact and burden on the health care system that we have seen in India, but we have seen similar trajectories where the incidence was almost vertical, if you looked at that epicurve. This can happen in a number of countries and in any countries, if we let our guards down. I am not saying that India has let its guard down but I am saying we are in a fragile situation.”


WHO Technical Lead for COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove

Fiji has had 111 cases since the first detection last year, March 19th.

We now have 44 active cases, five older border quarantine cases, 13 recent quarantine cases and 25 locally transmitted cases with one under investigation of how he got infected.