The World Health Organization is urging governments around the world to ramp up surveillance, testing and vaccine deployment as omicron subvariants drive a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
"New waves of the virus demonstrate again that COVID-19 is nowhere near over," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said during a July 12 media briefing.
"The virus is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity," he said, urging governments "to reverse the reduction in surveillance, testing and sequencing."
Over the last two weeks, global cases have increased 30 percent, driven by the highly transmissible BA.5 strain and other omicron relatives, according to WHO officials. They also pointed to widespread lifting of social public health measures like masking as a reason for new surges. The organization's emergency committee on July 8 determined the COVID-19 pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern.
In the U.S., the daily average for COVID-19 hospitalizations on July 12 was 38,517, up 18 percent from two weeks ago, according to HHS data collected by The New York Times. This marks the highest level since March. Cases are also up 19 percent from two weeks ago, with a daily average of 129,858 July 12. The increases have coincided with BA.5's quick rise to dominance in the U.S., accounting for an estimated 65 percent of U.S. cases for the week ending July 9.
Read more about BA.5 in the U.S. here.