The head of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the official weekly number of COVID-19 infections and related deaths have fallen by 90 percent worldwide from the peak earlier this year.
Well over 6.3 million COVID-19 deaths have been recorded worldwide since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
A total of more than 540-million people have tested positive for coronavirus and over 516-million people have recovered in two and a half years of the pandemic. Ghebreyesus has warned countries to keep up their guard against the virus.
He says the true figures are likely to be higher.
“This is very welcome trend, still more than three-million cases were reported to WHO last week, and because many countries have reduced surveillance and testing, we know this number is under reported.”
US FDA advisers back authorisation of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for ages 6-17
Advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday unanimously recommended that the agency authorise Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine for children and teens aged six to 17 years of age.
Around 77 million people in the United States have received at least a two-dose course of Moderna’s vaccine, which has long been available for people aged 18 and older.
The committee of outside experts is scheduled on Wednesday to consider the Moderna shot for children ages under six, and Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children under five and in both cases as young as six months.
There is unlikely to be significant immediate demand the Moderna shots for six to 17-year-olds. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was authorised for children aged five to 11 in October, and approval for teenagers preceded that by months.
Yet only around 30% of those ages five to 11 and 60% of 12 to 17-year-olds are fully vaccinated in the United States, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). – additional reporting by Reuters
