Ghebreyesus said that in some countries, coronavirus cases seem to have peaked, which gives hope that the worst of this latest wave is done with, while adding that ‘no country is out of the woods yet’.
Geneva: At a press briefing on Tuesday, World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the omicron variant continues to sweep the world, adding there were 18 million new COVID-19 cases reported last week.
“The number of deaths remains stable for the moment but we are concerned about the impact Omicron is having on already exhausted health workers and overburdened health systems,” he said.
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Ghebreyesus said that in some countries, coronavirus cases seem to have peaked, which gives hope that the worst of this latest wave is done with, while adding that ‘no country is out of the woods yet’.
“I remain particularly concerned about many countries that have low vaccination rates, as people are many times more at risk of severe illness and death if they’re unvaccinated,” the WHO chief said.
Omicron circulating far too intensely, says WHO chief
The WHO chief stated that Omicron may be less severe, on average of course, but the ‘narrative that it is mild disease is misleading’, hurts the overall response and costs more lives.
“Make no mistake, Omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths, and even the less severe cases are inundating health facilities,” he said.
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Ghebreyesus said that the virus is circulating ‘far too intensely’ with many still vulnerable.
Worst of the pandemic could be over this year, says WHO
The worst of the coronavirus pandemic deaths, hospitalisations and lockdowns could be over this year if huge inequities in vaccinations and medicines are addressed quickly, the head of emergencies at the WHP said Tuesday.
Dr. Michael Ryan, speaking during a panel discussion on vaccine inequity hosted by the World Economic Forum, said we may never end the virus because such pandemic viruses end up becoming part of the ecosystem.
But we have a chance to end the public health emergency this year if we do the things that we’ve been talking about, he said.
WHO has slammed the imbalance in COVID-19 vaccinations between rich and poor countries as a catastrophic moral failure. Fewer than 10% of people in lower-income countries have received even one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Ryan told the virtual gathering of world and business leaders that if vaccines and other tools aren’t shared fairly, the tragedy of the virus, which has so far killed more than 5.5 million people worldwide, would continue.
What we need to do is get to low levels of disease incidence with maximum vaccination of our populations, so nobody has to die, Ryan said. The issue is: It’s the death. It’s the hospitalizations. It’s the disruption of our social, economic, political systems that’s caused the tragedy not the virus.”
Ryan also waded into the growing debate about whether COVID-19 should be considered endemic, a label some countries like Spain have called for to better help live with the virus, or still a pandemic involving intensified measures that many countries have taken to fight the spread.
Endemic malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people; endemic HIV; endemic violence in our inner cities. Endemic in itself does not mean good. Endemic just means it’s here forever,” he said.
Public health officials have warned it is highly unlikely COVID-19 will be eliminated and say it will continue to kill people, though at much lower levels, even after it becomes endemic.
Fellow panelist Gabriela Bucher, executive director of the anti-poverty organization Oxfam International, cited the enormous urgency of fairer distribution of vaccines and the need for large-scale production. She said resources to fight the pandemic were being hoarded by a few companies and a few shareholders.
John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, decried the total collapse of global cooperation and solidarity over the last two years, saying it was totally unacceptable how few people in Africa have gotten vaccine shots. His agency says only 10% of Africa’s 1.2 billion people are fully vaccinated.
He also sought to douse the belief among some that vaccine hesitancy is widespread in Africa, citing studies that say 80% of Africans were ready to get shots if the vaccines were available.
The comments came on the second day of the online alternative to the annual World Economic Forum gathering, which was postponed over pandemic health concerns.
In speeches at the event, world leaders like Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett discussed approaches to the pandemic. He said his country, which quickly rolled out a widespread vaccination campaign, has a strategy of being at the forefront of the medicines and the vaccines against COVID-19.
Israel’s Health Ministry says 62% of people there are fully vaccinated, including with booster shots.
Citing advanced research in Israel, Bennett said, We want to be first in the world to know how vaccines and the new variants respond to one another.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his country had high levels of vaccination because society values protecting the elderly and the vulnerable. He plans to keep stringent border controls in place until the end of February.
He said he was trying to balance restrictions with keeping the economy open but that a zero COVID policy against the omicron variant is not possible nor appropriate.
