The new coronavirus has had a devastating impact around the world, but the World Health Organization warned Monday that worse pandemics are coming, urging the world to take preparedness “seriously”.
“This is a wake-up call,” WHO emergency chief Michael Ryan told reporters in a briefing marking a year since the UN agency first learned of the spread of the new virus. in China.
Since then, Covid-19 has killed nearly 1.8 million people worldwide, of the more than 80 million infected.
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“This pandemic has been very serious,” Ryan acknowledged.
“It has spread around the world extremely rapidly and has affected every corner of this planet, but this is not necessarily the largest.”
He stressed that while the virus is “highly communicable and kills people … its current fatality (rate) is reasonably low compared to other emerging diseases.”
“We need to prepare for something that may be even more serious in the future.”
WHO Senior Adviser Bruce Aylward also warned that while the world had made great scientific progress in addressing the coronavirus crisis, including developing vaccines at record speed, it was far from ready to prevent future pandemics. .
“We are in the second and third waves of this virus and we are not yet ready to deal with and manage them,” he said at the briefing.
“So although we are better prepared … we are not fully prepared for this one, let alone the next one.”
‘More ambition’
Meanwhile, the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, expressed his hope that the Covid-19 pandemic has helped the world to be more prepared to face future threats.
“In terms of conscience, I think we are getting there now,” he said.
But he stressed that it was “time to get really serious.”
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“More ambition will be needed.”
But Tedros also praised how scientists around the world were working closely together to help end the pandemic.
He specifically mentioned the two new strains of the virus that have emerged in Britain and South Africa, which appear to be more infectious than previous strains.
“We are working with scientists in the UK and South Africa who are conducting epidemiological and laboratory studies, which will guide the next steps,” he said.
He praised the two countries for testing and tracking the new variants.
And with more than 50 countries imposing travel restrictions on Britain, he also warned against taking punitive measures against countries that transparently share such results.
“Only if countries are analyzing and testing effectively will you be able to spot variants and adjust strategies to cope,” he said.
“We must ensure that countries are not punished for transparently sharing new scientific findings.
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