TEHRAN (Iran News) – It seems the COVID-19 saga does not want to reach its finish line and its death toll is increasing every day and it has brought back concerns among the nations and this time through its new mutation Omicron.

According to the latest data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday, the cumulative number of global COVID-19 cases had exceeded 360.5 million, with the death toll surpassing 5.62 million and any second the number is on the rise in the world.

Specifically, there had been 360,578,392 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 5,620,865 deaths, as of 16:37 Central European Time (CET) on Thursday, according to the WHO.

A total of 9,679,721,754 vaccine doses had been administered as of Jan. 25, according to the WHO.

The cumulative confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States exceeded 73.39 million as of Thursday, with the death toll surpassing 878,000, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

Specifically, the country’s case count rose to 73,397,025 and the death toll reached 878,325 as of 19:21 Eastern Standard Time (EST) Thursday.

A total of 533,570,351 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the country, according to the CSSE tally.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization also said the pandemic will not end as the omicron variant subsides in some countries, warning the high levels of infection around the world will likely lead to new variants as the virus mutates.

“We’re hearing a lot of people suggest that omicron is the last variant, that it’s over after this. And that is not the case because this virus is circulating at a very intense level around the world,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said during a coronavirus update in Geneva.

New infections have increased by 20% globally over the past week with nearly 19 million total reported cases, according to the WHO. But Van Kerkhove noted that new infections that go unreported would make the real number much higher.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior WHO official, warned high levels of transmission give the virus more opportunity to replicate and mutate, raising the risk that a new variant will emerge.

“We don’t fully understand the consequences of letting this thing run,” Aylward said. “Most of what we’ve seen so far in areas of uncontrolled transmission has been we paid a price for the variants that emerge and new uncertainties we have to manage as we go forward.”

Van Kerkhove said now is not the time to relax public health measures, such as curtailing mask wearing and physical distancing. She called on governments to strengthen those measures to bring the virus under better control and head off future waves of infection as new variants emerge.

The World Bank has also warned that global growth will “decelerate markedly” this year, but the Omicron variant of Covid-19 that is spreading rapidly worldwide could make the situation worse and exacerbate labor has shortages and supply chain snarls.

This deadly virus for almost three years has shattered the global economy and affected the lives of global, and there is still controversy over the origin and main cause of this global calamity.

The developed countries despite their claims and producing vaccines have been unable to curb this disease and the death toll in those countries has returned to the upward trend and sometimes is bigger than the under developing states.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been one of the successful countries in controlling this disease comparing to the boastful developed countries but it needs a sincere and collective cooperation by the whole people in the country to surmount this nasty virus which has disrupted many social and economic activities.

Iran despite sanctions has done great in minimizing the death toll of this disease but any indifference and easy-going attitude by the people may help the resurface of this deadly virus as many epidemiologists in the country have warned.

As President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi and other health ministry officials have asked the people, observing the COVID-19 related health protocols and vaccinations can bring peace and health to the public and especially to the medical staff who are really exhausted of almost three years of efforts to treat the COVID-infect patients but each time one negligence causes the re-emergence of the disease which costs dear for the country either in terms of medical or human life cost.

It is time for the nation to work together to overcome this disease which is only possible through observing health protocols and vaccinations otherwise this cycle of concerns will continue in the country and will paralyze lives and economy in the country like what we have so far seen even in the developed countries.

So far according to the official statistics more than 132,000 Iranians have lost their lives because of this disease as the figure of infected people is rising again, and we should not let it rise because it will have negative impact on any realm of activities in the country. Negligence and indifference regarding the protocols will once again pull the detonator of devastating “virus bomb” in the country and the number of casualties would rise.