OREANDA-NEWS  The World Health Organization said that the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming more difficult and that the world is increasingly moving away from its end.

This opinion was expressed by Maria Van Kerkhove, epidemiologist and the WHO technical director for COVID-19.

She explains this by factors such as the emergence of new variants of the virus, mixing of social groups, non-compliance with prevention measures and a lack of vaccines.

Kerkhove noted that over the past week, the number of new cases of COVID-19 in the world has increased by 11.5%, and the number of deaths has increased by 1%.

According to Kerkhove, the number of new cases of COVID-19 in Europe last week rose by 21%, and in the western Pacific - by 30%.

"We are in a very dangerous situation. The situation is becoming more and more difficult, and we are more and more distant from the end of this pandemic than we should be at the moment", - said the leading scientist of the WHO.