New Delhi: On Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the Covid-19 pandemic is far from being over during a media briefing. Although he reassured that it can be brought under control with proven measures.
He was quoted by Reuters as saying, “The COVID19 pandemic is a long way from over. But we have many reasons for optimism. The decline in cases and deaths during the first two months of the year shows that this virus and its variants can be stopped".
He said that transmission was driven by “confusion, complacency and inconsistency in public health measures”.
As the second wave hit India, the overall count breached 13.53 million, surpassing Brazil’s 13.45 million cases, according to data compiled by Reuters. The United States remains at the number one spot in terms of infections with 31.2 million cases so far.
Tedros said "We too want to see societies and economies reopening, and travel and trade resuming. But right now, intensive care units in many countries are overflowing and people are dying – and it’s totally avoidable."
He pointed out people's lax behaviour towards the virus and said, "In some countries, despite continuing transmission, restaurants & nightclubs are full, markets are open & crowded with few people taking precautions. Some people appear to be taking the approach that if they’re relatively young, it doesn’t matter if they get Covid".
He further added, "this disease (Covid-19) is not flu. Young, healthy people have died. And we still don’t fully understand the long-term consequences of infection for those who survive".
“We are at a critical point in the pandemic now, the trajectory of this pandemic is growing for the 7th week in a row,” said the WHO team leader on COVID-19, Maria van Kerkhove according to Reuters. She further added,“If you look at the epi (epidemic) curve and the trajectory of the pandemic right now, it is growing exponentially” noting that there had been a 9% rise in cases last week, the seventh consecutive week of increases, and a 5% rise in deaths.