New COVID-19 Variant, Holiday Gatherings Push December 2023 Deaths Near 10,000: WHO

The World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, mentioned that holiday gatherings and the spread of the most prominent global variant led to increased transmission of COVID-19 last month. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that nearly 10,000 deaths were reported in December, and hospital admissions during the month jumped 42% in nearly 50 countries—mostly in Europe and the Americas—that shared such trend information.

"Although 10,000 deaths a month is far less than the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, this level of preventable deaths is not acceptable," the World Health Organization director-general told reporters from its headquarters in Geneva. He said it was “certain” that cases were on the rise in other places that haven't been reporting, calling on governments to keep up surveillance and provide continued access to treatments and vaccines. Tedros said the JN.1 variant was now the most prominent in the world. It is an Omicron variant, so current vaccines should still provide some protection.

"The vaccines may not stop you being infected, but the vaccines are certainly reducing significantly your chance of being hospitalized or dying," he said. The WHO declared an end to COVID-19 as a pandemic in May 2023, over three years after the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China.