WHO sees ‘concerning’ COVID trends before winter as hospitalisations rise

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of “concerning” COVID-19 trends in advance of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, calling for increased vaccinations and surveillance.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of “concerning” COVID-19 trends in advance of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, calling for increased vaccinations and surveillance.

While figures are “limited” because many countries have stopped reporting coronavirus data, the United Nations health agency estimated that hundreds of thousands of people globally were currently hospitalised with the virus.

“We continue to see concerning trends for COVID-19 ahead of the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online news conference on Wednesday.

“Deaths are increasing in some parts of the Middle East and Asia, intensive care unit admissions are increasing in Europe and hospitalisations are increasing in several regions,” he said.

Tedros noted, however, that only 43 countries – less than a quarter of the 194 WHO member states – are reporting COVID-19 deaths to the agency, and only 20 provide information about hospitalisations.

“We estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of people in hospital now for COVID,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19.