The world is witnessing “green shoots of hope” in its battle against Covid-19, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO).
In the WHO’s daily media review, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus began noticing the scale of the coronavirus pandemic, with 20 million confirmed cases and 750,000 deaths expected by the end of this week.
However, he added that there were reasons to be hopeful in the global fight against the disease.
Download the new Independent Premium app
Share the full story, not just the headlines
“I know that many of you are saddened and that this is a difficult moment for the world,” said Dr. Tedros.
“But I want to be clear, there are green shoots of hope and that does not matter where a country, a region, a city or a city is – it’s never too late for the outbreak of Covid-19 to turn. “
The health chief praised New Zealand as a “global example” for its response to the pandemic, after the country celebrated 100 days on Sunday with no Covid-19 communications.
Dr Tedros also praised Boris Johnson for his government decision to implement local lockdowns in the UK and the Emmanuel Macron of France for the introduction of mandatory face masks in some outlying areas in Paris.
“In the last few days, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has put areas of northern England under notifications of residents as clusters of cases have been identified,” he said.
“In France, President Emmanuel Macron introduced mandatory masking in busy open spaces of Paris in response to an increase in cases.”
He added: “Strong and accurate measures such as these, combined with the use of every tool at our disposal, are the key to preventing any resurgence in Covid-19 and allowing societies to reopen safely.”
The WHO has called on countries to use a combination of rapid case identification, contact tracing, physical distance, mask wearing and regular hand washing to slow the spread of the pandemic.
Dr. Tedros also warned that effective suppression of Covid-19 in the community would be necessary for reopening of schools.
“We all want to see schools opened safely, but we also need to ensure that students, staff and faculty are safe. The basis for this is adequate control over transmission in the community, ‘he said.
“My message is very clear: suppress, suppress, suppress the virus.
“If we suppress the virus effectively, we can open societies safely.”
Dr Mike Ryan, head of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, said he believed the world would receive vaccines that are “safe and effective” in tackling the virus, but warned that this would be just one step towards the pandemic to end.
“The challenge will be to scale up production and break down those faxes in a way that does the very best in the world and stops this virus as much as possible, paying for all that and preparing national systems to to deliver this, ”Dr Ryan said.
“As I said earlier here at press conferences, we have effective vaccines against polio and measles and we are still struggling to eliminate that virus.”
He added: “Having an effective vaccine is only part of the answer. You need to have enough of the vaccine, enough people have access to that vaccine and you need to be able to deliver it to a population that wants that vaccine and easket. “
It has been more than six months since the WHO declared a global health emergency on Covid-19 in January.
.
