Pediatrician Emy Jean-Marie, center, holds her nine-month-old son Adedeji Adebayo, Emiola Adebayo, 3, on her lap as Dr. Nizar Dowla, right, administers a vaccine while Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Health, Admiral Rachel Levine, left, looks on, Tuesday, June 28, 2022, at the Borinquen Health Care Center in Miami.
The biggest weekly rise in new COVID-19 cases was seen in the Middle East, where they increased by 47%, according to the report released late Wednesday. Infections rose by about 32% in Europe and Southeast Asia, and by about 14% in the Americas, WHO said. “This pandemic is changing, but it's not over,” Tedros said this week during a press briefing. He said the ability to track COVID-19's genetic evolution was “under threat” as countries relaxed surveillance and genetic sequencing efforts, warning that would make it more difficult to catch emerging and potentially dangerous new variants.
“If rich countries are vaccinating children from as young as 6 months old and planning to do further rounds of vaccination, it is incomprehensible to suggest that lower-income countries should not vaccinate and boost their most at risk ,” he said.