| Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. © AFP=News1 |
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) is optimistic that the COVID-19 public health emergency could end this year. Nevertheless, he warned of the possibility of the emergence of new mutations, saying that the idea that Omicron is the last mutation is dangerous.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a meeting of the WHO Board of Directors on the 24th (local time): “We can end the global public health emergency and we can do it within this year.” .
About two years ago, on January 30, 2020, the WHO declared a global public health emergency over COVID-19.
“To do that, we need to work to ensure equitable access to vaccines and therapies, track viruses and emerging mutations and maintain regulation,” he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a target for countries around the world to vaccinate 70% of their population by the middle of this year, calling for more action to accelerate vaccine access in poor countries.
Tedros said that half of the WHO’s 194 member countries had not reached their goal of reaching 40% coverage by the end of last year, and 85% of Africans had yet to receive a single vaccination.
“We cannot end the public health emergency unless we close this gap,” he said.
◇The idea that Omicron is the last mutation is dangerous
Secretary-General Tedros warns that the idea that Omicron is the last variant of the coronavirus is dangerous.
He explained, “It is dangerous to assume that Omicron is the last mutation or that we have reached the endgame.
He said the omicron mutation, reported just nine weeks ago, has caused more than 80 million cases. This is more than the total number of confirmed cases reported in 2020.
Last week, an average of 100 confirmed cases occurred every 3 seconds, and a death due to COVID-19 occurred every 12 seconds.
In this situation, he emphasized that it is very important for countries around the world to remain vigilant, and that all countries should achieve this year’s goal set by the WHO, such as vaccinating 70% of their own population.
However, Secretary-General Tedros said, “Vaccines are not the only key to ending the pandemic, and each country should provide equal access to diagnostic tests, oxygen therapy and antiviral drugs.”
“We need to strengthen the diagnostic test function and speed up the sequencing so that mutations can be closely tracked and monitored for new mutations,” he said.
“Ending this pandemic is a priority,” he said. “We will live with COVID-19 in the near future and we need to learn to manage it, but that doesn’t mean we should let this virus do its thing.” added.
According to Worldometer, an international statistics site, as of the 25th, the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases around the world is 35,490,485, out of which 5,62,311 have lost their lives.
pasta@news1.kr
