Despite the extensive vaccination campaign across the world, a top official from the World Health Organization (WHO) said it’s ‘premature’ and ‘unrealistic’ to think the pandemic will be over by the end of the year.
Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s executive director of emergency services, said that while vaccinating the most vulnerable people, including healthcare workers, would help remove the ‘tragedy and gear’ from the situation, and would help to ease pressure on hospitals, the ‘virus is very much in control.’
“It will be premature, and I think unrealistic, to think that we’re going to finish with this virus by the end of the year,” he said.
“If the vaccines begin to impact not only on death and not only on hospitalization, but have a significant impact on transmission dynamics and transmission risk, then I believe we will accelerate toward controlling this pandemic,” he further added.
The number of Covid-19 cases has ballooned last week for the first time in almost two months. An increase in Covid-19 cases was found in the following regions: the Americas, Europe, south-east Asia, and the eastern Mediterranean.
“This is disappointing, but not surprising,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said.
“We’re working to better understand these increases in transmission. Some of it appears to be due to relaxing of public health measures, continued circulation of variants, and people letting down their guards,” he added.
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