• Covid-19 Pandemic Can Come To An End This Year: WHO Chief

    International
    Covid-19 Pandemic Can Come To An End This Year: WHO Chief
     

    Digital Desk: The chief of the World Health Organization declared on Monday that the world could resolve the covid-19 pandemic this year. Although the virus killed someone every 12 seconds last week.

    “We can terminate covid-19 as a global health emergency this year.” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the executive board of the UN health agency.

    Tedros added that to do so, the countries must work more to provide equal access to vaccines and treatment, track the virus and its new strains, and maintain limits.

    Notably, WHO asked the countries to speed up the distribution of the covid-19 vaccine to the poorer countries, urging all countries to vaccinate at least 70% of their populations by the middle of this year.

    According to Tedros, half of the WHO’s 194 member states failed their prior aim of vaccinating 40% of their populations by the end of 2021, and 85 percent of individuals in Africa are yet to receive a single vaccine.

    “We simply cannot end the pandemic’s emergency phase unless we close this gap.” he said.

    “On average, 100 cases were reported every three seconds last week, and an individuals died from covid-19 in every 12 seconds.” he added.

    Since its emergence in late 2019, covid-19 has killed over 5.5 million individuals, and the new Omicron version has pushed case numbers to new heights.

    Tedros claimed 80 million cases had been reported to the WHO since the strain was first discovered in southern Africa nine weeks ago, which is more than WHO receive in the entire year of 2020.

    Tedros said, “A surge has not matched the surge in covid-19 cases in deaths. Omicron appears to cause less severe disease than prior forms.”

    The WHO chief states that the world would have to learn to live with Covid.

    “We’ll have to learn to manage it through a long-term, integrated approach for acute respiratory disorders,” he added, cautioning that it’s wrong to think that Omicron will be the final variant or that this is the end game.