'Coronavirus may never go away': WHO shares update on COVID-19 pandemic

At a regular press briefing on Wednesday, World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that the coronavirus pandemic might “never go away” when asked by reporters when can the virus disappear. Furthermore, putting the speculations that the COVID-19 pandemic crisis might end by the end of 2021, WHO’s emergency director Dr. Mike Ryan said that it was “premature” and “unrealistic” to assume that the COVID-19 pandemic will end this year. Although, the WHO emergency director acknowledged that the mass vaccination programs have drastically reduced the rate of hospitalizations and deaths across countries worldwide. 

Controlling a pandemic requires a "massive effort” and the world’s focus at the moment must be aligned at keeping the caseload of COVID-19 as low as possible, WHO Ryan said. He added, “If we’re smart, we can finish with the hospitalizations and the deaths and the tragedy associated with this pandemic by the end of the year.” Furthermore, WHO emphasized the role of the vaccination to stem the infection surge, adding that there was no other guaranteed method to bring the pandemic’s evolution under control, warning against complacency. “Right now the virus is very much in control,” WHO’s emergency director said, adding that the virus was somewhat under control right now. 

[Michael Ryan, left, Executive Director of WHO's Health Emergencies program, next to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, right, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Credit: AP]

Vaccinating younger healthier poeple

Meanwhile, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned the wealthier nations for hoarding the vaccination supply. He informed that the COVAX initiative began this week in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, regrettable that it happened 3 months after the rich countries including Britain, the US and Canada began immunization. Furthermore, he mentioned that some wealthier nations had commenced vaccinating younger healthier populations while older vulnerable groups are exposed to the disease in African countries without the jab. “We can’t tell individual countries what to do,” said Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior WHO adviser.

“Countries are not in a race with each other,” he said. “This is a common race against the virus. We are not asking countries to put their own people at risk. We are asking all countries to be part of a global effort to suppress the virus everywhere,” Tedros said. 

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