“Last week, COVID-19 claimed one life every three minutes – and we only know about those deaths”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, WHO The Director-General briefing the media at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva.
According to WHO’s coronavirus dashboard which compiles key statistics from the start of the pandemic, cumulative cases worldwide now stand 765,222,932With nearly seven million deaths: the exact figure currently stands at 6,921,614.
As of April 30, a total of more than 13.3 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide.
‘Still Killing, Still Transforming’
He said the virus – first made a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO chief on January 30, 2020 – was here to stay: “It’s still killing and it’s still changing. There remains a risk of new variants emerging that lead to a new surge in cases and deaths,
He said that this decision was not taken lightly. For the past year, the WHO-led emergency committee has been carefully examining the data, to ease the alarm at the right time.
For more than 12 months, the epidemic “going downhillThere has been a surge in immunity due to highly effective vaccines developed in record time to fight disease and infection, he said. Death rates have come down and the pressure on health systems has eased ever since.
“This trend has allowed most countries return to life as we knew it Before COVID-19″, Tedros said.
‘Stream of falsehood and propaganda’
But he reflected that the impact of the pandemic “exposed political fault lines, within and between nations. it is trust is broken between people, governments and institutions, flooded with false and disinformation,
Tedros also noted the immense damage caused by the virus to all aspects of global life, including massive economic upheaval, “wiping trillions from GDP, disrupting travel and trade, closing businesses and plunging millions into poverty”. is included.”
He reminded that while he was speaking, thousands of people around the world are fighting for their lives in intensive care, and millions more, will live for the foreseeable future with “debilitating effects” of post-COVID conditions, or so-called ” Long COVID”.
The WHO chief said that on one level, the end of the emergency was a moment to celebrate, and he paid tribute to the “incredible skill and selfless dedication of health and care workers” around the world.
Reflections on the ‘Deep Scar’
But on another level, it was a time for deep reflection, with COVID continuing to leave “deep scars on our world”.
,These scars should serve as a permanent reminder of the potential for new viruses to emergewith disastrous consequences”, he said.
learn from mistakes
Many mistakes were made, including a lack of co-ordination, parallelism and solidarity, which meant that existing tools and techniques were not used to the best of their ability to tackle the virus.
“We must promise ourselves and our children and grandchildren that we will never make those mistakes again“, They said.
“This experience should change us all for the better. We should be more determined to fulfill the vision that nations founded WHO in 1948: the highest possible standard of health for all people.
