Second wave of Covid set to be deadlier: W.H.O.

Experts issued a grim warning Friday that the second year of Covid-19 was set to be “far more deadly”, as Japan extended a state of emergency amid calls for Olympics to be scrapped. “We’re on track for second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first,” said World Health Organization’s directorgeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

GENEVA/TORONTO: The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a grim warning on Friday, saying the second year of Covid-19 is set to be “far more deadly” than the previous one.

“We’re on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first,” said the WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The WHO also urged rich countries to reconsider plans to vaccinate children and instead donate Covid-19 vaccines to the Covax scheme that shares them with poorer nations.

The WHO is hoping that more countries will follow France and Sweden in donating shots to Covax after inoculating their priority populations to help address a gulf in vaccination rates.

Canada and the United States are among countries that have authorised vaccines for use in adolescents in recent weeks.

However, a WHO official said talks with Washington on sharing doses were underway. “I understand why some countries want to vaccinate their children and adolescents, but right now I urge them to reconsider and to instead donate vaccines to #Covax,” the WHO chief told a virtual meeting in Geneva.

Covax, which has delivered around 60mn doses so far, has struggled to meet supply targets partly because of Indian export curbs on the AstraZeneca vaccine due to its escalating crisis. So far, around 1.26 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered around the world.

The WHO’s chilling warning of a deadlier second year came as the Japanese government extended a state of emergency amid growing calls for the Olympics to be scrapped.

The Olympic Games are slated to be held in Japan from July 23 to August 8.

The mood darkened in Japan where the coronavirus state of emergency took in another three regions 10 weeks before the Games, while campaigners submitted a petition with more than 350,000 signatures calling for the event to be cancelled.

England was on track for more easing of curbs next week, but is taking no chances after doubling of cases of a variant first detected in India, the government said on Friday.

Accelerated vaccinations, surge testing and possible local restrictions are all in the mix after infections of the variant rose from 520 last week to 1,313 this week, officials said. The health ministry said the B.1.617.2 variant was “beginning to spread increasingly rapidly” in northwest England, “and decisive action is being taken to further control its spread”.

Canada considers B.1.617 as a ‘variant of concern’

Days after the WHO designated it a “variant of concern (VOC)”, Canada said it was considering the B.1.617 mutation of Covid-19 in the same category. Chief public health officer Theresa Tampointed out that VOCs represent “a majority” of Covid cases in Canada.