From Fortune:

According to a WHO official, COVID levels are being underreported around the world, citing wastewater data. Despite vaccination and prior infection, the potential for repeat COVID infection without symptoms is concerning due to unknown long-term effects. COVID hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise, with the emergence of a highly mutated variant, JN.1, currently driving a surge in the U.S. and around the world. It is believed that the true COVID death toll is at least three times higher than the official 7 million count, due to underreporting by many countries. The WHO is concerned that COVID–combined with other seasonal respiratory pathogens–places a heavy burden on countries, particularly in the face of declining population immunity. The organization is ready to designate a new Greek letter for a variant that significantly impacts public health. TAG-VE is working on a new variant classification system for later this year, to better group and assess different variants of concern and the symptoms they cause.



Read more: COVID levels are up to 19 times higher than reported, WHO says as it warns of the potential dangers of repeat reinfection: ‘We don’t know everything about this virus’