Last week, 9.5 million people were infected ↑... "The confirmed tsunami is big and fast"

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As the omicron mutation spreads rapidly, it was found that more than 9.5 million people worldwide were infected with Corona last week. The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly warned that "the confirmed tsunami is so large and fast that it overwhelms the global health system".

Kwak Sang-eun is a reporter.

<Reporter>

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) tally, a total of 9,52,488 new cases of COVID-19 were reported from the 27th of last month to the 2nd of this month.

Not only is it an all-time high, but it is up 71% from a week ago.

An increase in the number of confirmed cases has been witnessed in most parts of the world, especially in Europe and the Americas.

[Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus/WHO Director-General: There are not enough diagnostic tests during the year-end and New Year holidays, so the actual number of infected people will definitely be higher than the count.] The

WHO Director-General said, "The confirmed tsunami is very large and It is rapidly overtaking the global health system,” he said.

Also, he cautioned against vigilance, saying that the Omicron mutation, like previous mutations, hospitalizes and kills people.

However, the number of new deaths was 41,178, a decrease of 10% from the previous week.

WHO reiterated the need for equitable distribution of vaccines, saying that new variants continue to emerge due to global vaccine inequality.

[Bruce Ailward/WHO Advisor: We all know now that failure to distribute vaccines creates new mutations and new problems.]

According to the WHO, so far, 36 countries have less than 10% of the COVID-19 vaccination rate, according to the WHO .

and 80% of severely ill patients worldwide are unvaccinated.