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ZURICH: The number of new coronavirus infections globally increased last week for the first time in seven weeks, the World Health Organization said on Monday (March 1).
“We need to have a stern warning for all of us: that this virus will recover if we let it go,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead for COVID-19, said in a briefing. “And we cannot allow it.”
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the increase in cases was “disappointing but not surprising” and urged countries not to relax measures to combat the disease.
It was too early for countries to rely solely on vaccination programs and abandon other measures, he said: “If countries rely solely on vaccines, they are making a mistake. Basic public health measures remain the basis of the answer.” .
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Tedros noted that Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire on Monday became the first countries to begin vaccinating people with doses supplied by COVAX, the international program to provide vaccines to poor and middle-income countries.
But he also criticized rich countries for piling up doses of vaccines, saying it is in everyone’s interest that vulnerable people are protected around the world.
“It is unfortunate that some countries continue to prioritize vaccinating healthier young adults with lower risk of disease in their own populations, ahead of health workers and older people elsewhere,” Tedros said.
Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergency expert, said the global fight against coronavirus was in a better state now than it was 10 weeks ago before vaccine launches began. But it was too early to say that the virus was under control.
“The problem is that we have control of the virus and the virus controls us. And right now the virus has a lot of control.”
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