A top World Health Organisation (WHO) official has said the spike in respiratory illnesses that China is currently facing is not as high as before the Covid-19 pandemic. Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, made these remarks during an interview with health news outlet STAT.
The increase in recent cases appeared to be driven by a rise in the number of children contracting pathogens that two years of Covid restrictions have kept them away from, according to Maria Kerkhove. “We asked about comparisons prior to the pandemic. And the waves that they’re seeing now, the peak is not as high as what they saw in 2018-2019,” she told the outlet on Friday. “This is not an indication of a novel pathogen. This is expected. This is what most countries dealt with a year or two ago,” she added.
On Sunday, China’s National Health Commission said the surge in acute respiratory illnesses was linked to the simultaneous circulation of several kinds of pathogens, most prominently influenza. The spike became a global issue last week when the WHO asked China for more information, citing a report on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children by the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases. China and the WHO have faced questions about the transparency of reporting early in the pandemic. Last week, the WHO said no new or unusual pathogens had been found in the recent illnesses.
During the interview, the WHO official was asked where is the world with Covid right now. To this, she replied, “We’re in a much better place. I think the population level immunity is holding up fairly well because of whatever vaccination took place, plus infection over time. The concern I have is in the complete unwillingness to talk about Covid and its risk at an individual level, and really among the most at-risk people.”
(With agency inputs)