Geneva, July 13 (TIWN) The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is "nowhere near over" as the number of new cases worldwide has risen by 30 per cent in the last two weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

"I am concerned that cases of Covid-19 continue to rise -- putting further pressure on stretched health systems and health workers. I am also concerned about the increasing trend of deaths," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists here on Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, the recent increase in the number of newly reported Covid-19 cases has been largely driven by Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, and by the lifting of public health and social measures. Recent changes in testing policies have also been hindering the detection of new cases and the monitoring of the evolution of the virus, he said.