The new variant of coronavirus named Omicron has once again brought fears and anxiety to the hearts of people across the world while heading towards the holiday season. The fear of coronavirus is just not ending and this is the second following year that Christmas holidays will be held in the shadow of the Covid-19 disease.
Amid all these fears, the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media briefing on Tuesday that, “2022 must be the year we end the pandemic.”
“If we are to end the pandemic in the coming year, we must end inequity, by ensuring 70 per cent of the population of every country is vaccinated by the middle of next year,” he added.
The WHO chief further added, “Last week, WHO issued Emergency Use Listing for a ninth vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India under license from Novavax. This new vaccine is part of the COVAX portfolio, and we hope that it will play an important role in achieving our global vaccination targets.”
“2022 must be the year we end the [#COVID19] pandemic.”-@DrTedroshttps://t.co/ojwY35dIJk
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 21, 2021
However, Tedros, highlighted a grim picture saying that a cloud of gloom has descended on the world because of coronavirus. He said that that more than 3.3 million people have lost their lives to the pandemic this year – more deaths than from HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined in 2020, and still continues to due around 50,000 lives every week.
“That’s not to mention the unreported deaths, and the millions of excess deaths caused by disruptions to essential health services,” the WHO chief added.
Meanwhile with the fierceness with which coronavirus is spreading once again is due to the Omicron variant which was first spotted in South Africa on November 24 and has spread to more than 100 countries since then.
“There is now consistent evidence that Omicron is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant. And it is more likely that people who have been vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 could be infected or reinfected,” said Tedros. From reporting its lowest number of cases in 18 months, Africa recorded fourth-largest number of cases in a single week, said the WHO chief.
