Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia The World Health Organization (WHO) says the world can control Covid-19 next year if lucky. This was conveyed even though currently the Delta variant is still spreading in the world.
WHO Health Emergencies Program Executive Director Mike Ryan said this required vaccines to be distributed equally to poor countries, practice social distancing and adequately fund hospitals.
“The world can control Covid-19 next year if we are really lucky,” WHO officials said.
“I want to say it will end this year, but I really don’t think so. If we are really lucky, we will control it next year,” Ryan continued.
He also said that countries with high vaccination rates could end the pandemic more quickly. But two also criticized world leaders for not sharing their vaccine stocks with poor countries.
“Kids should be asking their government… so why don’t we share,” he added. “For me it’s a big problem we have at the moment, we don’t share enough, we are unfair and we know we learn it in school.”
WHO Covid technical leader Maria Van Kerkhove said that currently in the world there are still many countries that are still experiencing an increase in cases. “In the last seven days, at the global level, there have been 11.5% cases and there has been a 1% increase in deaths,” he said.
Europe saw an increase of almost 21%, Southeast Asia saw an increase of 16.5%, the Western Pacific region saw an increase of about 30%, and the Eastern Mediterranean region recorded a 15% increase in cases.
Deaths from Covid also increased in four of the WHO’s six regions in the past seven days. The Western Pacific saw a 10% increase in deaths, Southeast Asia saw a 12% increase, the Eastern Mediterranean saw a 4% increase, and the African region is still suffering from a recent spike in infections.
The WHO also said that while experts had looked at Covid infections that passed vaccine protection, those cases were almost always mild.
The new variant is still considered as the cause of the recent increase in cases. “The delta variant will not be the last variant of the concern you hear us talking about,” he added.
The longer people around the world are left unvaccinated and social activities continue, the higher the risk of developing more dangerous variants. for that WHO said that international travel should only be done if absolutely necessary.
“Everything you do in a pandemic is either increasing or decreasing risk, there’s no zero risk, it’s about minimizing risk,” Ryan said.
(roy/roy)
– .
