New Delhi: Vaccines will help to save lives, but if countries rely solely on vaccines, they are making a mistake, World Trade Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a media briefing in Geneva Monday.
Tedros attributed the rise in cases in certain regions to relaxing of public health measures, virus variants, and “people letting down their guard”. He urged countries to uphold basic public health measures as the foundation of their Covid-19 response.
“Vaccines will help to save lives, but if countries rely solely on vaccines, they’re making a mistake,” he said.
Global cases have risen for the first time in almost two months in the past week even as about 250 million vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, WHO officials said at the briefing. They pointed out that reported cases have increased in four of WHO’s six regions: the Americas, Europe, South East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, which Tedros called “disappointing” but not “surprising”.
“This is a global crisis that requires a consistent and coordinated global response. And we must remember that for millions of people, COVID-19 is just one threat they face on a daily basis,” he added. However, he said it was encouraging that vaccine doses for medical personnel in poorer countries, like in the West African countries of Ghana and Ivory Coast, are finally being given.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO technical lead for Covid-19, called the recent global surge a “a stern warning for all of us”. She said, “If the last week tells us anything, it’s that this virus will rebound…We cannot let it. We’ve all been in a position previously where we’ve gotten transmission down to very low numbers and cannot allow it to take off again, especially as we have vaccines rolling out.”
Kerkhove further advised countries to adhere to guidelines announced since 4 February 2020, which include active case finding, contact tracing, cluster investigation, isolation and clinical care, supported quarantine of contacts as well as social distancing on hand-washing on an individual level.
The virus has been rising unabated across the world with 114,986,725 infected and 2,549,724 dead. As many as 90,695,601 have recovered so far. India, which continues to be second-most-affected country globally, ranks 13th among worst-hit nations by active cases.
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