WHO asks countries for caution in withdrawing health restrictions

Reuters and AFP

Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, February 2, 2022, p. eleven

Geneva. Many countries have not reached their peak of cases of the omicron variant and the restrictions imposed to curb its spread should slowly be relaxed, said Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) technical lead for covid-19.

The agency announced that 90 million cases have been registered since ómicron emerged 10 weeks ago, a figure higher than in all of 2020, the first year of the pandemic.

Both Van Kerkhove and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern about the continuing rise in the number of deaths from Covid-19 in some countries. It is premature for any country to surrender or declare victoryTedros Adhanom said.

The call for caution comes at a time when some countries are seeking to return to normalcy. For example, Denmark yesterday lifted the restrictions, despite registering a record number of cases, considering that the covid-19 it is no longer a disease of social impact

More transmission means more deathssaid the Ethiopian doctor.

Van Kerkhove called for “caution because many countries have not yet gone through the omicron peak. Many of them have low levels of vaccination coverage with highly vulnerable individuals within their populations.

This is not the time to withdraw everything at once. We have always urged to be very cautious when applying the interventions and to lift them steadily and slowly, step by step. Because this virus is quite dynamiche added.

WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan urged countries to chart their own path out of the pandemic and not blindly follow others in easing measures.

He said he feared that political pressure could lead some countries to reopen their activities prematurely, leading to new unnecessary transmissions of covid-19 and deaths.

It is a transition phase for many countries, not all are in the same situation. Governments making the decision to open up more widely also need to ensure the ability to reintroduce measures, with community buy-in, if necessary.Held.

So if we open doors quickly, we might as well be able to close them very quickly..

Pfizer asks for endorsement of vaccine for 5-year-olds

The compulsory vaccination law against the coronavirus came into force on February 1 in Austria, which will apply to all people over 18 years of age.

Spain reduced the validity of antigen tests to enter the country to 24 hours.

Pfizer asked the United States health authorities to authorize its vaccine against covid-19 in children under 5 years of age.

The WHO warned that the enormous amount of waste caused by the pandemic threatens global health and the environment.

The pandemic has left 381 million 112 thousand 73 confirmed cases and 5 million 683 thousand 918 deaths in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.