GENEVA (Reuters) – The second year of the COVID-19 outbreak may be more severe than the first due to the spread of the new coronavirus, especially in the northern hemisphere as changes more infectious circulating, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.
“Entering the second year of this could be even harder with some of the distribution dynamics,” Mike Ryan of WHO said at an event on social media.
The WHO, in its latest overnight epidemiological update, said that after two weeks of fewer reported cases, about five million new cases were reported. -week last week.
“After the holidays, in some countries the situation will be much worse before it gets better,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical director for COVID-19.
Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and John Miller in Zurich