Last Updated on 22/12/2021 by Ulka
GENEVA – The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) called on the international community to band together and make the painful decisions necessary to terminate the Covid-19 within the next year.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva that “2022 must be the year we end the pandemic.”
As the end-of-year celebrations approach, the head of the United Nations’ health organisation admitted that “We all want to spend time with our loved ones. We all want things to return to normal”
However, he stated that in order to return to normal, we must now defend ourselves as cases, fueled by the fast-spreading Omicron version, increase.
Since its discovery in South Africa in November, Omicron has been found in dozens of nations, putting an end to optimism that the pandemic’s darkest days are behind it.
Omicron has been demonstrated in early data to have increased transmissibility and a concerning resistance to vaccines, despite evidence that it is not more severe than the Delta variation, which is still the dominant strain. With the number of cases on the rise, Tedros emphasised that it was better to postpone activities “now and grieve later” rather than “enjoy now and grieve later.”
“Right now, we have to concentrate on putting an end to this pandemic.”
Tedros claimed that the epidemic could be stopped, but that it would take all of the instruments at our disposal, including vaccines, masks, and physical separation. Most critically, the world needs to address the huge disparities in vaccine access.
“We must eliminate unfairness if we are to end the pandemic in the coming year,” he stated.
