WHO warns ability to identify new Covid variants is diminishing as testing declines

WHO warns ability to identify new Covid variants is diminishing as testing declines Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's Covid-19 technical lead, said the virus is spreading rapidly and continues to evolve even as deaths from the disease decline. Spencer Kimball CNBC

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Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said the virus is still circulating at an “incredibly intense level” around the world. The WHO is “deeply concerned” that it is evolving at a time when there is no longer robust testing in place to help rapidly identify new variants, Van Kerkhove said.

“Our ability to track variants and subvariants around the world is diminishing because surveillance is declining,” Van Kerkhove told reporters during an update in Geneva. “That limits our ability to assess the known variants and subvariants but also our ability to track and identify new ones.”

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