May 23 2022 07:36
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned, on Sunday, that the “Covid-19” pandemic is not over yet, despite the decline in cases recorded since the peak of the Omicron wave.
He said in Geneva at the opening of the organization’s annual meeting, that “the decline in tests and mutants means that we are turning a blind eye to the mutation of the virus,” noting that “nearly one billion people in low-income countries have not yet received the vaccine.”
He added, “At a time when health has progressed, as 60% of the world’s population has been vaccinated, the virus hardly ends anywhere until it spreads everywhere, and reported cases are increasing in nearly 70 countries in all regions.”
He pointed out that “registered deaths are on the rise in Africa, the continent with the lowest vaccination coverage, and only 57 countries around the world have vaccinated 70% of their population.”
He explained that “while the world’s vaccine supply has improved, there has been insufficient political commitment to roll out vaccines in some countries, and there are gaps in operational or financial capacity in others.”
He continued, “In general, we see the reluctance to obtain vaccines driven by misinformation … the epidemic will not magically disappear, but we can end it.”
In its weekly report on the global situation, the World Health Organization confirmed that “the number of new cases of Covid-19 has stabilized after weeks of decline since late March, despite the decrease in the total number of weekly deaths.”
Tedros is expected to be appointed to a second 5-year term this week, during the World Health Assembly, the 75th annual meeting of the organization’s member states.
Source: agencies
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