Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead Covid-19, in a recent interview expressed the toll was "heartbreaking" because the tests, treatments, vaccines and public health measures to control the disease were all available.
On being asked whether it is the Omicron subvariants or becoming more severe or there are other factors that are driving the deaths, Van Kerkhove listed out a few critical factors.
We are constantly looking at the variants of concern and the subvariant of Omicron that are circulating globally. Of the sequences that have been shared most of them are Omicron, of which 83% are subvariant BA.5.
So it is now the dominant variant across the world, Van Kerkhove said. “When you see an increase in transmissibility, there will be an increase in hospitalisation, and when there is an increase in hospitalisation, the risk of death will also increase." Pointing out another critical factor, the WHO official said, a large population across the world is yet to get the primary vaccine dose.