Omicron subvariant BA.2

The world exceeds 500 million known Covid-19 cases

As of yesterday, the world had exceeded half a billion known cases of the coronavirus, up from 400 million in February. The actual number is almost certainly far higher, with many cases going undetected or unreported. That gap may grow as some countries, including Britain and the U.S., scale back testing.

Against the warnings of experts and despite the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.2., many nations have dropped their pandemic precautions. “What’s happening globally and in the U.S. is that people basically gave up,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the W.H.O. “They just want to go back to normal life.”