International

WHO says Covid still an international emergency

Photo: Hector Retamal /AFP

| By AFP | Nina Larson

The World Health Organization said Wednesday it is too early to lift the highest-level alert for the Covid crisis, with the pandemic remaining a global health emergency despite recent progress.

The WHO’s emergency committee on Covid-19 met last week and concluded that the pandemic still constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), a status it declared back in January 2020.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Wednesday that he agreed with the committee’s advice.

“The committee emphasised the need to strengthen surveillance and expand access to tests, treatments and vaccines for those most at risk,” he said, speaking from the UN health agency’s headquarters in Geneva.

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The WHO first declared the Covid-19 outbreak a PHEIC on January 30, 2020, when, outside of China, fewer than 100 cases and no deaths had been reported.

Though it is the internationally-agreed mechanism for triggering an international response to such outbreaks, it was only in March, when Tedros described the worsening situation as a pandemic, that many countries woke up to the danger.

Since the start of the Covid pandemic, more than 622 million confirmed Covid cases have been reported to WHO and more than 6.5 million deaths, although those numbers are believed to be significant underestimates.

According to WHO’s global dashboard of the situation, 263,000 new cases were reported in the previous 24 hours, while 856 new Covid deaths had been reported in the past week.

Tedros acknowledged Wednesday that “the global situation has obviously improved since the pandemic began,” but he warned that “the virus continues to change and there remain many risks and uncertainties.”

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“The pandemic has surprised us before and very well could again,” he warned.

Surveillance has declined

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, agreed, warning that there were still “millions of cases being reported each week, but our surveillance has declined.”

This is making it difficult to get a full overview of the situation and especially of how the virus is mutating.

She stressed that “the more this virus circulates, the more opportunities it has to change.”

The Omicron variant accounts for basically all virus samples that are sequenced, with more than 300 sublineages of that variant recorded.

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“All of the subvariants of Omicron are showing increased transmissibility and properties of immune escape,” Van Kerkove said, adding that one new combination of two different subvariants was showing “significant immune evasion.”

“This is a concern for us because we need to ensure that the vaccines that are in use worldwide remain effective at preventing severe disease and death,” she said.

In light of the broad spread of new Omicron subvariants, Van Kerkhove stressed that “countries need to be in a position to conduct surveillance to deal with increases in cases and perhaps deal with increases in hospitalisations.”

“We have to remain vigilant.”

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A health worker takes a swab sample from a woman to test for the Covid-19 coronavirus in the Huangpu district of Shanghai on August 17, 2022. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP)

International

Death toll from southern Spain train crash rises to 40

The death toll from the train accident that occurred on Sunday in southern Spain has risen to 40, according to investigative sources cited by EFE on Monday afternoon.

Since early Monday, search operations have focused on the damaged carriages of a Renfe train bound for Huelva, which collided with the last derailed cars of an Iryo train traveling from Málaga to Madrid after it left the tracks.

The crash has also left more than 150 people injured. Of these, 41 remain hospitalized, including 12 in intensive care units at hospitals across the Andalusia region.

More than 220 Civil Guard officers are working at the site, searching the railway line and surrounding areas for key evidence to help identify victims and determine the causes of the accident.

The tragedy has revived memories of the deadliest railway disasters in Europe in recent decades. In Spain, the most severe occurred on July 24, 2013, when an Alvia train derailed near Santiago de Compostela, killing 80 people and injuring 130 others.

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At the European level, the worst rail disaster took place on June 3, 1998, in Eschede, northern Germany, when a high-speed train struck a bridge pillar at 200 kilometers per hour, resulting in 98 deaths and 120 injuries.

International

Spain’s Prime Minister pledges transparency after train crash kills at least 39

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pledged on Monday to ensure “absolute transparency” regarding the causes of a train crash that killed at least 39 people on Sunday in southern Spain, warning that the death toll could still rise.

The fatal accident occurred in the Andalusia region, where the number of confirmed deaths reached 39 by Monday morning, according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior.

Authorities were preparing to deploy heavy machinery to lift several derailed train cars. “We are waiting for cranes to be installed this morning to lift cars one, two and three of the Alvia train, which suffered the most damage,” said Andalusian regional president Juanma Moreno Bonilla on regional television. “It is likely that once they are lifted, we may find more victims,” he added.

The disaster also left more than 120 people injured. As of Monday afternoon, 43 victims remained hospitalized, including 12 in intensive care, according to emergency services.

International

Over 160 christian worshippers kidnapped in Kaduna Church attacks

More than 160 Christian worshippers were abducted on Sunday during coordinated attacks carried out by armed gangs on two churches in a remote village in Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, according to a cleric and a United Nations report accessed by AFP on Monday.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has witnessed a renewed surge in mass kidnappings since November, prompting the United States government to carry out military strikes on Christmas Day in the northwestern state of Sokoto.

U.S. President Donald Trump accused Nigerian armed groups of targeting Christians, describing the violence as a form of “genocide” against the religious community.

According to Reverend Joseph Hayab, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the north, the attackers arrived in large numbers, blocked access to the churches, and forced worshippers to flee into nearby forests.

“The attackers came in large numbers, sealed off the entrances to the churches, and drove the faithful into the bush,” Hayab told AFP.