The Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, at a press briefing on Wednesday 29th of December, 2021, expressed his concerns that new variants could become harder to treat.
The Director General stated that two years ago as people gathered for the New Year’s Eve celebrations, a new world threat arose.
Since that time there have been 1.8 million deaths confirmed in the year 2020 and 3.5 million more in the year 2021, and that the actual numbers are much higher. He stated that millions were also battling long-term effects of the virus.
Ghebreyesus expressed his grave concern over the fact that the Omicron variant (considered to be even more transmissible) was circulating concurrently with the Delta variant, and resulting in “a tsunami of cases.”
Presently, the Omicron and Delta variants have caused COVID-19 cases to rise to record numbers, resulting in admission numbers and the death toll from the virus to rise as well.
During the meetings of the biggest economies in the world (the G7 and the G20), which were held earlier in the year 2020, the WHO urged world leaders to ensure that 40 per cent of their populations were vaccinated by the end of the year 2021, and by the middle of 2022 70 per cent should have been vaccinated.
With less that 48 hours left in the year 2021, 92 member states out of 194 have fallen short of that mark.
Ghebreyesus stated that the reason for this poor turnout was the fact that low income countries received limited supply for a large portion of the year, and subsequent vaccines arrived close to their expiration, without provision being made for key parts like syringes.
“Forty per cent was doable. It’s not only a moral shame, it cost lives and provided the virus with opportunities to circulate unchecked and mutate,” Tedros Ghebreyesus said.
The Director General urged the leaders of wealthy countries as well as manufacturers to work hand-in-hand to reach the goal of 70 per cent vaccination by July. He also cautioned that boosters in wealthy countries would likely cause low-income countries to once again fall short of the mark.
“This is the time to rise above short-term nationalism and protect populations and economies against future variants by ending global vaccine inequity.” He said.
He stated also stated that the longer the pandemic lasts, the more likely it is that new variants which are fully resistant to the current modes of treatment may emerge.
“We have 185 days to the finish line of achieving 70 per cent by the start of July 2022. And the clock starts now,” said Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organisation.