Confusion and complacency in addressing COVID-19 mean the pandemic is far from over, but with proven public health measures it could be brought under control in months, said the head of the World Health Organization.
“We too want societies and economies to reopen, and to resume travel and trade,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news conference on Monday.
“But right now, intensive care units in many countries are overflowing and people are dying – and it’s totally avoidable.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. But we have many reasons for optimism. The decline in the number of cases and deaths during the first two months of the year shows that this virus and its variants can be stopped, ”he added, saying the transmission was driven by“ confusion, complacency and inconsistency in public health measures ”.
India has overtaken Brazil to become the country that has the second highest number of infections recorded worldwide after the United States as it battles a massive second wave. India has given approximately 105 million doses of vaccine to a population of 1.4 billion.
WHO team leader on COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, told the newsletter that the pandemic grew exponentially, with a nine percent increase in the number of cases last week, the seventh consecutive week of increases and a five percent increase in the number kill.
Tedros said that in some countries, despite continuous broadcasts, restaurants and nightclubs were full and markets were open and busy and few people took precautions.
“Some people seem to take the approach that if they are relatively young, it doesn’t matter if they get COVID-19,” he said.
‘Africa must expand vaccine production’
Meanwhile, African leaders and international health officials have called for expansion of coronavirus vaccine production across the continent, including through partnerships to boost expertise and investment.
Africa is struggling to obtain coronavirus vaccines and imports the vast majority of its medicines and medical equipment, making it dependent on overseas supplies.
The mostly poor countries are falling behind in the global coronavirus vaccination race with less than 13 million doses delivered to the continent’s 1.3 billion people so far, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said last week .
World Trade Organization Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said Monday it was “morally unscrupulous and a serious economic blow” that only 1.1 per 100 Africans had received a vaccine, compared to more than 40 per 100 in North America.
“Between a steeper fall and a weaker rebound, Africa will have lost ground to other regions,” she said at a virtual conference hosted by the African Union. “So to drive growth, trade and livelihoods, we need vaccines for everyone who needs them.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the African Union’s COVID-19 response champion and leader of the African country hardest hit by the coronavirus in terms of infections and deaths, said the strategy should be medium-term to expand existing production facilities into regional hubs.
“We also need to establish lasting partnerships with entities in both the developed world and developing countries,” he said.
African countries, he added, could seek help from countries like India and Brazil on how they have developed their generic pharmaceutical industries.
Africa now imports 99 percent of all its vaccines, but should aim to reduce imports to about 40 percent by 2040, Africa CDC director John Nkengasong said.
Okonjo-Iweala said building more manufacturing capacity would require long-term investment, but countries could offer incentives such as lowering tariffs on commodities.
She encouraged WTO members to find a “pragmatic outcome” for a proposal from India and South Africa to suspend vaccines and other medical patents during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent technology transfer to manufacturers with speed up unnecessary production capacity.
Tedros said WHO is supporting calls for manufacturers to remove barriers that hinder access to critical health products.
“We continue to call on companies to share know-how,” he said at the conference.