The world must step up efforts to combat Covid-19 – and countries must not let their guard down, the World Health Organization chief scientist warned Monday as coronavirus cases soared around the world.
“We are in a very high-risk period,” said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan of the World Health Organization. “We have to double down, this is not the time to give up.”
The WHO warned last week that the number of new Covid-19 cases around the world was increasing after six consecutive weeks of declines. According to the health authority, more than 2.6 million new cases were reported in the last week of February, 7% more than the week before.
It added that the Eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, Europe and America each saw increases of between 6% and 14%.
While vaccines are on the rise for us in the nation, we can’t let our guard down.
Julie Morita
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
“This is partly because of lockdown fatigue, you know. It’s because people … maybe getting a little more casual because they think vaccines are on the way,” Swaminathan told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” Monday. New variants may also come into play, she added.
“We have to … do everything we know to control these viruses, keep transmission down until we have enough vaccines,” she said, warning that healthcare could become overburdened again.
“Health workers around the world are exhausted, they have been fighting this for over a year now,” she added.
Other health experts have also indicated that it is no time to get complacent.
Julie Morita, executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said it is important to recognize that infections, hospitalizations, and deaths are still high even if they fell off their peaks in the US.
“It is still necessary for us to wear our masks, to distance ourselves from social, to avoid crowds while we are being vaccinated,” she told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” Monday.
“While vaccines are on the rise for us in the nation, we can’t let our guard down,” she said. “It’s too early to relax.”