GENEVA: Almost two years have passed since the outbreak of the pandemic. Lakhs of people have died due to the virus. There are crores of infected people in India alone. Lockdowns have been imposed in various cities in China, the origin of the virus, due to Omicron surge. However, there is no shortage in spread of fake news and misinformation about the virus, across the globe.

The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Maria Van Kerkhove has listed out three misleading facts about the virus that is causing confusion among people. “We have huge amounts of misinformation that's out there. The misinformation that Omicron is mild. Misinformation that the pandemic is over. Misinformation that this is the last variant that we will have to deal with. This is really causing a lot of confusion”, Kerkhove said.

Covid vaccines are incredibly effective in preventing severe disease and death. A majority of the sequences provided in the last 30 days are Omicron. Among those 75 percent is BA.2. The new infection spread has increased by eight percent globally compared to the previous week, with 11 million new cases. The biggest rise was seen in South Korea and China, where cases rose by 25 per cent and deaths by 27 per cent. Experts have warned that the cases will soon increase in countries such as Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Netherland and Britain.