The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom, warned today of the risk of wasting the opportunity to control SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, in 2022.
“In some countries, the high vaccination coverage, combined with the lower severity of the Omicron variant, is driving the false idea that the pandemic is over,” he said.
At the same time, low immunization rates and poor diagnostic testing rates in other nations are creating ideal conditions for new strains to emerge, he added during the Covid-19 Global Action Meeting.
We can control the disease this year, but we run the risk of wasting that opportunity, Adhanom stressed, recalling that as many as 116 nations are currently outside the goal set for the middle of this year of immunizing 70 percent of the population.
“In many states, the issues are not primarily an absorptive capacity issue,” he said, noting that we urgently need to support political leaders to accelerate drug deployment.
The authority described three demands to tackle Covid-19: reach that 70 percent of the global population vaccinated; that all countries contribute to funding the ACT Accelerator collaborative initiative, and support models such as the mRNA technology transfer center in South Africa.
“Boosting local vaccine manufacturing capacity across the globe, complemented by temporary intellectual property exemptions for tools against the novel coronavirus, will help end the novel coronavirus and keep us all safer,” he said.
With the united work between the public and private sectors, we can control the pandemic and promote an inclusive and sustainable recovery, emphasized the leader of the United Nations health agency.
