The head of the World Health Organization has warned that a drop in testing for Covid-19 has left the world blind.
According to the UN health agency, reported Covid cases and deaths have been dropping.
Last week, just over 15,000 deaths were reported to WHO, the lowest weekly total since March 2020.
He warned that the declining numbers could be a result of significant cuts in testing for the virus.
As many countries reduce testing, WHO is receiving less and less information about transmission and evolution.
Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to a deadly virus.
William Rodriguez, who heads the global diagnostics alliance FIND, decried that many governments stopped looking for Covid cases in recent months.
Testing rates have plummeted by 70% to 90% worldwide in the past four months, he pointed out at the press conference hosted by WHO.
Despite the fact that there is more access to accurate testing, the testing rates plunged.
Rodriguez said that they have an unprecedented ability to know what is happening.
Testing has been the first casualty of a global decision to let down our guard and we are becoming blind to what is happening with this virus.
More than 6 million deaths have been caused by the Covid-19 epidemic, but the true toll is believed to be at least three times that.
The WHO stresses that the Pandemic is not over despite the fact that many countries have removed measures.
Tedros said that the virus won't go away just because countries stop looking for it.
The threat of a dangerous new variant remains very real.
Although deaths are declining, we still don't understand the long-term consequences of infections in those who survive.
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