The world has never been in a better position to end the Covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed the lives of millions since late 2019, World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. .
“Last week, the number of weekly deaths from Covid-19 was the lowest since March 2020. We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic,” Tedros Ghebreyesus defended at a news conference, warning: “No, we are still here, but the end is near.”
“Whoever runs a marathon does not stop when he approaches the goal. He runs faster, with all the energy he has left. And so do we,” the official of the World Health Organization (WHO) underlined.
“We can all see the finish line, we are on our way to win, but it would really be the worst time to stop racing,” he insisted.
“If we don’t seize this opportunity, we risk more variants, more deaths, more disruption and more uncertainty,” the doctor warned.
According to the WHO’s most recent epidemiological report devoted to Covid-19, the number of cases fell by 12% in the week from August 29 to September 4 compared to the previous week, to about 4.2 million declared infections.
The number of infections is much higher, according to the WHO, because mild cases are not necessarily reported, but also because many countries have dismantled their test structures.
As of September 4, the WHO had more than 600 million officially confirmed cases – again a number estimated to be much lower than reality – as well as 6.4 million deaths.
WHO reports fewer cases of monkeypox but urges countries to be wary
With regard to Monkeypox, Tedros Ghebreyesus stressed that the number of new cases worldwide continues to fall and warned that this is not the time to “relax or let our guard down”.
“Affected countries and communities must continue to work and health professionals still need support to diagnose and treat new cases, and to prevent infections,” underlined Tedros Ghebreyesus.
Last week, 3,400 new cases were confirmed, of more than 58,000 diagnosed since the outbreak began, for which the WHO declared an international emergency in July.
The United States reported 1600 of these new cases weekly, followed by Brazil (500), Mexico (280) and Peru (210), while in Europe, where the first infections were registered in April, Spain was the country with the most diagnosed cases. (nearly 200), according to data updated by WHO.
22 deaths were confirmed during the outbreak, including 14 in Africa, a continent where the disease has been endemic to central and western regions for decades.
The countries with the most cases since the start of the outbreak are the United States (more than 21,000), Spain (6,900) and Brazil (6,000). Portugal registered at least 898 cases.
Tedros Ghebreyesus today called for special efforts to sequence the genomes of the virus that causes the disease in the lab, in order to “better understand how it evolves”.
Source: DN
