[ad_1]
Now you can follow the latest news for free through our Twitter account
Click here for subscribe
Geneva: The World Health Organization warned on Friday that popularizing vaccines to fight the Covid-19 epidemic will not alone be enough to eliminate the deadly virus.
The organization warned of being satisfied and what it called the misconception that the availability of vaccines will soon spell the end of the crisis.
“Vaccines do not mean zero covid,” Mike Ryan, director of the WHO Emergency Health Cases Program, said at a news conference. It is clear that by itself “it will not accomplish the mission”, adding that “the vaccine will not be available to everyone early next year.”
On Wednesday, Britain was the first Western country to authorize a vaccine for public use, rapidly increasing pressure on other countries to catch up.
The director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the advance in vaccines “gives us all a boost and now we can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
However, WHO is concerned about the widespread perception that the epidemic is over.
He added: “The truth is that today, many places are witnessing a sharp increase in the transmission of the virus, which is putting tremendous pressure on hospitals, intensive care units and health personnel.”
The number of coronavirus infections topped 65 million on Friday.
The virus has also killed 1.5 million people since its emergence in China last December, according to official sources cited by Agence France-Presse.
“The decisions that leaders and citizens make will determine the course of the virus in the short term and when this epidemic will finally end,” Tedros said.
Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO technical team on COVID-19, added that these decisions “could mean life or death for us and life or death for our family.”
According to the World Health Organization’s review of candidate vaccines, 51 vaccines are currently undergoing clinical trials, with 13 of them reaching the final stage of large-scale trials.
Another 163 candidate vaccines are being developed in laboratories, where they are expected to eventually undergo clinical trials.
[ad_2]
