Global Covid-19 conditions are declining, but the uneven distribution of life-saving vaccines could leave the global economic recovery and developing countries even later, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
3.7 million new global coronavirus cases were reported during the week ending January 31, a decrease of 13% compared to the previous week, according to the latest WHO position report. Covid-19 deaths, which weaken new cases a few weeks ago, led to a slight decline of 1% over the week.
That news welcomes the consideration of global issues expected to break 5.5 million cases per week, but more than 3 million new diseases are “still a horrific population,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergency program.
“The rain has eased but the sun has not yet been set,” Ryan said in a live Q&A session at the group’s headquarters in Geneva.
Health experts have warned that new, infectious strains of the virus that were first identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil could fuel already devastating events in countries around the world. -world.
Faster virus transmission could lead to more infections, eventually lead to more hospitalizations and deaths if spread undetected. But even in areas where the variables have emerged, things are deteriorating, said Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the emerging diseases and zoonosis unit.
In the UK, which marked the B.1.1.7 variance in December, cases have declined 31% compared to the previous week, according to a WHO report. Similarly, in South Africa, which also found a similar variant called B.1.351 at the end of last year, cases declined 44%, the report said.
“This is important because people are scared when they hear mutations and mutants and variants,” Kerkhove said. “We can’t let our guard down. We can’t let up.”
The new mutations of coronavirus did not come as a surprise to scientists because it is normal for viruses to circulate when they spread. Experts are concerned that some of the rays, particularly the B.1.351 variant found in South Africa, could pose a threat to the efficacy of currently available vaccines and medications.
Drug dealers have insisted that their images should work against the new changes, but health experts have stressed that it is important to prevent the spread of the virus to prevent put on more mutations as countries use the first supply of Covid-19 vaccines.
However, not all countries have had equal access to life-saving drugs.
Of the countries that have started distributing doses to their residents, the majority have been in higher-income countries that claimed an early supply of filters throughout the country. their own supply agreements, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned.
That’s a problem because the latest vaccines will allow countries to reopen their economies without threatening a rise in hospitals and deaths from the virus, Ryan said Wednesday. The WHO has appealed for countries to sign up for COVAX, a global alliance it co-directs that aims to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the world’s poorest countries.
The program hopes to deliver 2.3 billion doses by the end of this year. Earlier Wednesday, officials from COVAX announced that they have so far dispensed at least 330 million doses to poor countries, which they hope to start delivery by the end of February or early March. These early doses would go towards the vaccine for those most at risk, such as health care workers.
Ryan said that this would allow countries to reopen their economies without having to worry about putting more pressure on their hospital systems, but that will not be possible until we can “get the minimum number of doses of vaccine delivered to all countries. “
“If we want our societies to be open, if we want to be on the path to normalizing and normalizing the way we live, we need to be fair about the way we distribute the ways to live normally, “Ryan said.” Right now, the unequal distribution of vaccines means that not all societies are going to have the same opportunity to come. back online and that’s not fair. “
– Holly Ellyatt and Reuters from CNBC contributed to this report.