Medical staff takes samples to test for COVID-19 for people in Beijing, China, April 26, 2022. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)

China is still trying to control the COVID-19 epidemic. Beijing on Wednesday recorded 50 new cases, and the city government has begun to deploy a large-scale testing program to lower the risk of an outbreak. On the same day, Shanghai reported 47 deaths from COVID-19 while more than 10,000 cases were detected.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus called on all countries to maintain surveillance, saying the world was "underestimating" how the virus is spread due to testing rates. Last week, just over 15,000 deaths were reported to WHO, the lowest weekly total since March 2020. WHO Director General Ghebreyesus warned that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has not disappeared and is still spreading, mutating and causing deaths. The threat of a dangerous new variant is present, and despite the decline in deaths, the long-term consequences for those who have recovered from the disease are not fully understood.