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GENEVA: The global death toll from COVID-19 could double to 2 million before a successful vaccine is widely used and could be even higher without concerted action to curb the pandemic, a World Health Organization official said on Friday (September 25).
“Unless we do it all, (2 million deaths) … not only imaginable, but unfortunately very likely,” Mike Ryan, head of the UN agency’s emergency program, said in a briefing. on Friday.
The death toll about nine months ago since the new coronavirus was discovered in China is approaching a million.
“We are not out of the woods anywhere, we are not out of the woods in Africa,” Ryan said.
He said young people should not be blamed for a recent spike in infections despite growing concerns that they are fueling its spread after restrictions and blockades were relaxed around the world.
“I really hope we don’t get moving – it’s all down to the youth,” Ryan said. “The last thing a young man needs is an old man pontificating and wagging his finger.”
Rather, indoor gatherings of people of all ages were fueling the epidemic, he said.
WHO is continuing talks with China about its possible participation in the COVAX funding scheme designed to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines globally, one week after the commitment deadline has expired.
“We are in talks with China about the role they can play as we move forward,” said Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the WHO and head of the ACT-Accelerator program to support COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics.
He confirmed that Taiwan has adhered to the plan, although it is not a member of the WHO, bringing the total to 159 participants. Some 34 are still deciding.
The talks with China also include discussion of the world’s second-largest economy potentially supplying vaccines to the scheme, he said.
The UN agency on Friday released draft criteria for evaluating the emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines to help guide drug manufacturers as vaccine trials reach advanced stages, said the deputy director-general of WHO, Mariangela Simao.
The document will be available for public comment until October 8, he said.
Earlier on Friday, a Chinese health official said the WHO had provided its support for the country to start giving people experimental coronavirus vaccines, even as clinical trials were still ongoing.
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