The end of the Covid-19 pandemic “is within reach” as the world “has never been in a better position to end” this evil, which has killed more than six million people since the end of 2019, said the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Last week the number of weekly deaths from Covid-19 fell to its lowest level since March 2020. We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic. It is not over yet, but its end is at hand,” Tedros said at a press conference at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
“Someone who runs a marathon doesn’t stop when they see the finish line. He runs faster, with all the energy he has left. And so do we,” stressed the head of the WHO.
“We can all see the finish line, we are about to win. It would truly be the worst time to stop running », he insisted.
“If we do not take advantage of this opportunity, we run the risk of having more variants, more deaths, more problems and more uncertainty,” he insisted, quoted by the AFP news agency.
According to the latest epidemiological report published by the WHO and dedicated to Covid-19, the number of cases fell 12% in the week from August 29 to September 4 compared to the previous week, to 4.2 million new infections. declared.
The number of infections is higher due to the fact that mild cases are not reported, but also because many countries have dismantled their infrastructure to carry out tests.
As of September 4, the WHO counted more than 600 million officially confirmed cases, a figure that is presumed to be much lower than the real one, the same as the official number of deaths: 6.4 million worldwide.
