Covid-19 epidemic situation on March 17, 2021: WHO issued a new warning

According to WHO, after more than a month of decline, the number of Covid-19 cases has started to increase around the world since last week. This is due to many factors, such as the spread of Omicron and sub-variant BA.2, along with the gradual lifting of restrictions in many countries.

“The increases are still happening even though some countries have reduced testing. This means that the number of cases we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Photo: Reuters

In addition, low vaccination rates in some countries, partly due to “large amounts of misinformation”, also explain this increase.

More than 11 million new infections and more than 43,000 deaths were recorded between March 7 and 13. The largest increase is in the Western Pacific region, which includes Korea and China.

Japan will lift all restrictions against Covid-19

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio announced on March 16 that the government will lift Covid-19 prevention restrictions in Tokyo and 17 other prefectures from March 21. Many signals show that the wave of Covid-19 epidemic in Japan is on a downward trend. Tokyo recorded 10,221 new Covid-19 cases on March 16, down 13.6% from a week ago.

Earlier, the Japanese Government issued new guidelines on the lifting of key epidemic prevention measures. Accordingly, these measures can be lifted when the pressure on the local health system is likely to ease.

Israel discovered a new hybrid variant of corona virus

The Israeli Ministry of Health on March 16 announced that it had detected two cases of infection with a new variant of corona virus, which is a combination of the original Omicron variant (BA.1) and the sub-variant BA.2.

According to Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Health Nachman Ash, the new variant causes mild fever, muscle aches and headache, but does not require special treatment. This variant has never been detected worldwide, Mr. Ash said.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett directed the Ministry of Health to proactively grasp the epidemic situation in the world and in the country, especially in the context of Israel preparing to enter major holidays.

Korea is in short supply of conventional medicine

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KDCA) announced that the number of Covid-19 infections on March 16 in the country continued to set a new record with 549,854 cases, bringing the total number of infections since the beginning of the epidemic season to 7,629,275.

South Korea is also facing a serious shortage of conventional medicines. Many private medical facilities in Seoul currently no longer have common medicines to prescribe to patients such as cold medicine, cough suppressant, expectorant syrup.

Moon Eun Hee, head of the pharmaceutical policy department at KDCA, said authorities have been asking drug companies to ramp up production since February. South Korea also requires companies to report weekly on production, sales, inventory… for their pharmaceutical products.

>>> Update Covid-19 pandemic situation world

Vietnamese-English