BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
According to the Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19, issued by WHO, globally, COVID-19 confirmed cases are continued to rise for a fourth consecutive week, with just under 3.3 million new cases reported in the last week.
Concurrently, the number of new deaths reported plateaued after a six week decrease, with just over 60 000 new deaths reported. A marked increase in the number of new cases was reported from the South East Asia, Western Pacific, European and Eastern Mediterranean regions, all of which are on an upward trajectory in recent weeks. The European Region and the Region of the Americas continue to account for nearly 80 percent of all the cases and deaths.
The highest numbers of new cases were reported from Brazil (508 010 new cases; 3 percent increase), the United States of America (374 369 new cases; 19 percent decrease), India (240 082 new cases; 62 percent increase), France (204 840 new cases; 27 percent increase), and Italy (154 493 new cases; similar to previous week).
Over one year into the pandemic, WHO continues to conduct global surveillance of COVID-19 as part of activities on preparedness, readiness and response activities. The need for global surveillance of COVID-19 is greater than ever, as the implementation of vaccination campaigns and the appearance of variants are prone to impact the course of the epidemic, as transmission patterns evolve.
Timely and complete surveillance data are key to monitoring these changes. In addition to the daily count of confirmed cases and deaths of COVID-19, WHO requested all Members States to report a minimal set of information using a case report form or via the weekly aggregated surveillance system as specified in the Public Health Surveillance for COIVD-19 interim guidance. Member States report primarily via one of the systems; some have switched from case report forms to weekly reporting.
When we come to the case of Ethiopia, the country registered 1,692 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 190,594, according to the report from Ministry of Health.
The Ministry said 19 new deaths from the virus were reported across the country, bringing the national death toll to 2,693.
The East African country reported 1,019 more recoveries, taking the national count to 149,590.
According to the Ministry, Ethiopia currently has 38,309 active COVID-19 cases, of which 693 are said to be under severe health conditions.
The country has so far conducted 2,293,486 COVID-19 tests, including 7,092 tests in the past 24 hours, the Ministry said.
Ethiopia rolled out COVID-19 vaccinations last week shortly after the country received its first 2.2 million COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, a global initiative working to ensure quick and equal access to vaccines against COVID-19 and all countries participating in the Facility (currently 190) have equitable access to 2 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021.
On an occasion, organized to brief media practitioners recently, Dr. Lia Tadesse Minister of Health said that significant efforts are ongoing to curb the spread of the pandemic since the first case was reported. Reaching this milestone by avoiding initial disastrous predictions is a huge achievement, and the unparalleled endeavors of all health practitioners, leaders, volunteers, partners and the communities at large for their sacrificial service and collective action in minimizing the severe effect of the pandemic.
She further said that, it should be noted that though considerable progresses are made, currently, the highest number of daily deaths are on record. As the pandemic is not contained and it never goes away, the fight must continue. “We need to revitalize our collective efforts to protect our loved ones and ourselves by adhering to the prevention measures.”
She also called on religious leaders to urge communities to behave in line with the protocols of WHO and the Ministry of Health.
Addressing the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia, Dr. Lia noted that the virus is surging among various communities at an alarming rate both in detection of new cases and deaths, especially this week.
To curb this, religious leaders should strengthen effort in teaching fellow citizens to adhere to the set protocols accordingly to curb the surge of the pandemic.
The menace is growing distressingly; and before it becomes in a worse situation than now, we should act accordingly to minimize the spread of the pandemic, she warned.
The Ethiopian Herald March 25/2021
