The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said the number of new coronavirus cases globally rose last week for the first time in seven weeks, reported Al Jazeera.
Tedros said the rise in the case number was disappointing but not surprising and urged countries not to relax measures imposed to curb the spread of the disease. He said it was too early for governments to bet on vaccination programs and abandon other measures to fight the disease.
“If countries rely solely on vaccines, they are making a mistake. Basic public health measures remain the foundation of the response,” the WHO chief said.
Tedros said Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are the first two countries to have begun vaccinating people on Monday with vaccine doses supplied by COVAX, the international initiative that works to provide vaccines for poor and middle-income countries. But he also criticized wealthy nations for hoarding vaccine doses.
“It’s regrettable that some countries continue to prioritize vaccinating younger healthier adults at lower risk of diseases in their own populations, ahead of health workers and older people elsewhere,” the WHO chief said.
According to data by Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 114 million confirmed coronavirus cases, including some 2.5 million related deaths and 64.5 million recoveries, so far.
237 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be ready for distribution in 142 poorer countries by the end of May.
Meanwhile, WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan on Monday said it is unrealistic to think the world will be done with the Covid-19 pandemic by the end of the year.
He said it might however be possible that the recent arrival of effective vaccines could at least help dramatically reduce hospitalizations and death.
But Ryan warned against complacency, saying that nothing was guaranteed in an evolving epidemic. He said that the virus is very much in control right now.
