It is unrealistic to believe that the world will defeat the COVID-19 Pandemic by the end of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said this past Monday. WHO emergency director Michael Ryan said the Virus is still very active, taking into account that the global number of new cases increased this week after seven consecutive weeks of decline.
“It would be very premature and I would say unrealistic to think that we are going to end the Virus by the end of the year,” Ryan told a news conference. “But I think that what we can greatly reduce, if we are smart, hospitalizations, deaths and the tragedy that this Pandemic brings,” he added.
First objective
Ryan said that the objective of the WHO is to lower the levels of contagion, help prevent the emergence of variants and also reduce the numbers of people who get sick. He stressed that vaccinating the most exposed health personnel and vulnerable people “removes fear and tragedy” from the Pandemic.
Health personnel, the priority
WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wants vaccination of healthcare personnel to be on track in all countries in the first 100 days of 2021. He welcomed the fact that the first dose injections under the Covax global vaccine access plan were carried out in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, although he regretted that this occurred almost three months after the start of vaccination campaigns in rich countries.
“And it is unfortunate that in some countries they continue to vaccinate healthy young people and adults with low risk of contracting the disease with priority, instead of vaccinating health workers and elderly people as in other places,” he added.
