The World Health Organisation is calling for vaccination campaigns for risk groups in view of increasing coronavirus infections and falling immunisation rates.

“We have seen an alarming decline in vaccine coverage,” WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove said in Geneva, referring to lower rates in the last two years. This is especially true for older people and healthcare workers.

“This urgently needs to be turned around,” she said.

Among coronavirus tests, the proportion of positive results has been rising for several weeks and is over 10 per cent, the WHO reported, based on data from 84 countries. In Europe, the rate is over 20 per cent.

Wastewater analyses show that the virus is much more widespread than the infection statistics suggest, said Van Kerkhove.

She also pointed out that more than 40 athletes had tested positive at the Olympic Games in Paris.

However, the epidemiologist emphasised that the current situation is not comparable to the pandemic phase, as more people are now protected from severe courses of the disease by vaccinations and infections they had.

Van Kerkhove also pointed out that the WHO only receives data on the number of coronavirus treatments in hospitals and intensive care units from very few countries.

She said the WHO is “blind” when it comes to understanding the extent of the disease.

(dpa/NAN)