Covid-19 infections and hospitalisations among adults in the ages between 25 and 59 are on the increase across the world at a time when pandemic-related global deaths have reached a million mark, the World Health Organisation (WHO), said Monday.
To date, over 141 million people in the world have been infected by the coronavirus with over 3 million of them having since succumbed to it.
In Zimbabwe as at April 19, a total of 37,859 citizens have contracted Covid-19 with 1,553 of them having already died from the pandemic related complications.
Briefing the media on Covid-19 Monday, WHO director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus bemoaned the increase in infections and hospitalisations among young adults.
“Infections and hospitalizations among people aged 25 to 59 are increasing at an alarming rate, possibly as a result of highly transmissible variants and increased social mixing among younger adults,” decried the WHO chief.
“Last week, new cases of Covid-19 increased for the eighth week in a row, with more than 5.2 million cases reported – the most in a single week so far. Deaths rose for the fifth straight week, and more than 3 million deaths have now been reported to WHO.”
He further said: “It took 9 months to reach 1 million deaths; 4 months to reach 2 million, and 3 months to reach 3 million. Big numbers can make us numb. But each one of these deaths is a tragedy for families, communities and nations.”
He said the world has the tools to bring the pandemic under control in a matter of months, if consistently and equitably applied.
“The pandemic will recede,” said Ghebreyesus
“But we will still be left with all the other challenges that we had before, including the climate crisis.”
