Confusion and satisfaction with the COVID-19 approach means the pandemic is far from over, but it can be controlled in a few months with proven public health measures, said the head of the World Health Organization.
“We also want to see the reopening of societies and economies and the resumption of travel and trade,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.
“But now, intensive care units in many countries are overflowing and people are dying – and it’s totally avoidable.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is a long way from the end. But we have many reasons for optimism. The decline in cases and deaths in the first two months of the year shows that this virus and its variants can be stopped “, he added, saying that the transmission was determined by” confusion, satisfaction and inconsistency in public health measures “.
India has overtaken Brazil to become the nation with the second highest total number of infections worldwide after the United States, as it fights a second massive wave. India has administered about 105 million doses of vaccine to a population of 1.4 billion.
The leader of the WHO team for COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, told the news that the pandemic is growing exponentially, with a nine percent increase in cases last week, a seventh consecutive week of growth and a five percent increase in deaths.
Tedros said that in some countries, despite continuous transmission, restaurants and nightclubs were full and markets were open and crowded, with few people taking precautions.
“Some people seem to take the approach that if they are relatively young, it doesn’t matter if they get COVID-19,” he said.
“Africa needs to expand vaccine production”
Meanwhile, African leaders and international health officials have called for the expansion of coronavirus vaccine production on the continent, including through partnerships to increase expertise and investment.
Africa has struggled to purchase coronavirus vaccines and imports the vast majority of its medicines and medical equipment, leaving it to rely on supplies from abroad.
Its mostly poor nations lag behind in the global coronavirus vaccination race with up to 13 million doses administered to the continent’s 1.3 billion people, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa) said last week. CDC).
World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on Monday that it was “morally unconvincing and a serious economic impact” that only 1.1 per 100 Africans had received a vaccine, while in North America the rate it was over 40 to 100.
“Between a sharper fall and a weaker recovery, Africa will lose ground to other regions,” she told a virtual conference organized by the African Union. “Therefore, in order to stimulate economic growth, trade and livelihoods, we must provide vaccines to all those who need them.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, COVID-19 champion of the African Union and leader of the African country most affected by coronavirus in terms of infections and deaths, said the medium-term strategy should be to expand existing production facilities in regional hubs.
“We also need to enter into sustainable partnerships with entities in both the developed and developing worlds,” he said.
He added that African countries could seek guidance from countries such as India and Brazil on how they have developed their generic pharmaceutical industries.
Africa now imports 99 percent of all its vaccines, but should aim to reduce imports to about 40 percent by 2040, said CDC Africa Director John Nkengasong.
Okonjo-Iweala said building more production capacity would require long-term investment, but countries could provide incentives such as reducing tariffs on raw materials.
She encouraged WTO members to find a “pragmatic outcome” to a proposal by India and South Africa to suspend vaccines and other medical patents during the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate technology transfers to producers with spare production capacity. .
Tedros said WHO supports calls for manufacturers to remove barriers to access to critical health products.
“We continue to call on companies to share know-how,” he told the conference.