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The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday, 19 March, that there had been an 8 percent increase in COVID-19 infections (11 million cases) across the world, India Today reported.
It added that there were concerns, especially in countries like China, Hong Kong, and South Korea, where there was a marked surge in infections, despite a decline in testing rates.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead, said that constant misinformation regarding COVID-19 had led to a surge in cases across the world, particularly the belief among people that the pandemic was over.
The WHO also stated that the Omicron variant was still extremely infectious. It added that a reduction in the wearing of masks, lifting of COVID-19 protocols, and refusal to follow social distancing norms had led to the rise in infections.
The WHO said that the global surge could be attributed to the BA.2 COVID-19 variant, which is more infectious than the BA.1 variant.
"Omicron is transmitting at a very intense level... We have sub-lineages of BA.1 and BA.2. BA.2 is more transmissible and this is the most transmissible variant we have seen of the SARS-COV2 virus to date," Kerkhove said, as per a report by India Today.
(With inputs from India Today.)
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