“This pandemic has been very severe,” said Michael Ryan, the head of the emergency department.
Geneva, Switzerland:
The new coronavirus has had a devastating impact around the world, but the World Health Organization warned on Monday that more severe pandemics could hold ahead, urging the world to become “serious” about training.
“This is a wake-up call,” the WHO’s chief emergency officer told reporters at a briefing marking a year since the UN agency first learned about the spread of the new virus in China.
Since then, Covid-19 has killed nearly 1.8 million people worldwide, out of more than 80 million infected.
“This pandemic was very severe,” Ryan acknowledged.
“It has spread all over the world extremely fast and has affected every corner of this planet, but it is not necessarily the largest.”
He pointed out that while the virus is “highly transmissible and kills people … the current death rate (rate) is quite low compared to other emerging diseases.”
“We need to prepare for something that could be even more severe in the future.”
WHO Senior Adviser Bruce Aylward also warned that while the world has made huge scientific strides to address the coronavirus crisis, including the development of vaccines at a record speed, it has fallen far short of being prepared to remove future pandemics.
“We are in the second and third waves of this virus and we are not yet ready to manage and manage them,” he told the briefing.
“So while we’re better prepared … we’re not fully prepared for this, let alone for the next one.”
– “More ambition” –
Meanwhile, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed hope that the Covid-19 pandemic had helped the world be better prepared to deal with future threats.
“In terms of awareness, I think we’re getting it now,” he said.
However, he emphasized that it was “time to be really serious”.
“More ambition will be needed.”
But Tedros also welcomed the way scientists around the world have worked closely to help end the pandemic.
He specifically mentioned the two new strains of the virus that have appeared in the UK and South Africa, which appear to be more infectious than previous strains.
“We are working with scientists from the UK and South Africa who are conducting epidemiological and laboratory studies that will guide the next steps,” he said.
He welcomed the two countries for testing and tracking the new variants.
And with more than 50 countries now imposing travel restrictions on Britain, he also warned against taking punitive measures against countries that transparently share such results.
“Only if countries search and test effectively will you be able to choose options and adjust strategies to cope,” he said.
“We need to make sure that countries are not punished for the transparent exchange of new scientific discoveries.”
(This story was not edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated stream.)