Pandemic hasn’t ended, more variants expected: WHO chief scientist

Chief scientist of World Health Organisation (WHO) Soumya Swaminathan has said that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from being over as there still the possibility of the emergence of new variants.

“We have seen the virus evolve, mutate…so we know there will be more variants, more variants of concern, so we are not at the end of the pandemic,” she told reporters in South Africa where she is visiting vaccine manufacturing units with WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

India on Friday saw a single day rise of 58,077 coronavirus infections, which took the tally of cases to 4,25,36,137, while the active cases have declined to 6,97,802, the Union Health Ministry has said.

The daily COVID-19 cases are being recorded at less than one lakh for the last five consecutive days.

The death toll has climbed to 5,07,177 with 657 daily fatalities. The active cases comprise 1.64 per cent of the total infections, while the national recovery rate has further improved to 97.17 per cent, the health ministry said.

A reduction of 92,987 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 3.89 per cent while weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 5.76 per cent, according to the health ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,13,31,158, while the case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.19 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 171.79 crore.

(With inputs from agencies)