The World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday warned against giving up the fight against the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic, reported Eyewitness News.
“We must not give up,” Ghebreyesus said during a virtual briefing.
He said that a certain level of pandemic fatigue had set in after months of battling the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 1.1 million lives across the world.
“It’s tough and the fatigue is real,” Tedros said. “But we cannot give up.”
The WHO chief also urged leaders to balance the disruption that has been caused to lives and livelihoods. He insisted that the virus can be suppressed if global leaders act quickly.
Tedros’ comments came a day after US President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN that the administration’s focus had moved to mitigation and not eradicating the virus.
“We’re not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics, and other mitigations,” Meadows said.
Tedros said that it was dangerous to give up on controlling the virus.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the WHO chief urged for global unity in the rollout of any future coronavirus vaccine, as the number of cases increased across the world.
In a video address during the opening of the World Health Summit in Berlin, Tedros said the only way to recover from the pandemic was together and by making sure poorer countries also get fair access to a vaccine.
“It is natural that countries want to protect their own citizens first but if and when we have an effective vaccine, we must also use it effectively,” he said.
The WHO chief said that the best way to effectively use the vaccine would be to vaccinate some people in all countries rather than all people in some countries.
He warned that vaccine nationalism will prolong the pandemic, and not shorten it.
