Covid-19: Not the last pandemic, more may follow, warns UN chief
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: As the world braced for the Omicron ‘havoc’ in the next few weeks, the United Nations has warned that the Covid-19 pandemic will not be the last of its kind on the planet, and the countries should take adequate steps to avert such global crises in the future.
“Covid-19 will not be the last pandemic humanity will face. As we respond to this health crisis, we need to prepare for the next one. On this International Day of Epidemic Preparedness, let’s give this issue the focus, attention, and investment it deserves,” UN Secretary-General Guterres said in a tweet on Monday.
The first-ever International Day of Epidemic Preparedness began on December 27, 2020, after the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed on the need to advocate the need for preparedness for and prevention of epidemics.
Last week, WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the media that blanket Covid-19 vaccine booster programs could prolong the pandemic and increase inequity. “No country can boost its way out of the pandemic,” he said in Geneva, according to the media reports.
“And we cannot see boosters as a ticket to go ahead with planned celebrations, with no other precautions,” he added.
The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) has issued interim guidance on booster doses, expressing concern that mass programs for countries that can afford them will exacerbate vaccine inequity.
The WHO chief revealed that more people died from Covid-19 in 2021 than from HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis combined in 2020.
Coronavirus killed 3.5 million people this year and continues to claim some 50,000 lives each week. Overall, Covid-19 has infected 280 million people and claimed over 5.4 million lives the world over.
The coronavirus’ latest variant of concern (VoC), Omicron, has triggered a fresh wave of Covid-19 in South Africa, the UK, France, Italy, and several other regions. It has already reached over 110 countries and threatening to replace the Delta variant as the deadliest globally. Several countries have re-imposed restrictions and announced booster vaccination.
On Sunday, the European nation recorded over 100,000 virus infections in a single day for the first time in the pandemic, the media reported.
As Omicron sweeps the country, Britain has been recording over 100,000 cases every day. The UK’s Covid-19 cases hit a record for a third day on Friday, at 122,186, up from 119,789. The number of Covid-19 cases in the United States is also rising with an average of nearly 190,000 new infections daily over the past seven days, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said over 76 percent of the total corona cases in the US are of Omicron variants.
In India, the national tally of Omicron cases stood at 508 on Monday morning with Maharashtra reporting 141 cases, the maximum in the country.
In view of the rise in Omicron cases, state governments are imposing various restrictions, such as night curfews, and a cap on the number of people allowed to attend social gatherings.
