Geneva: Representatives of the World Health Organization have stated that there is no proof to determine the elimination of coronavirus from the world. They said that it was difficult to predict as to when the current global pandemic will be over, but medical intervention and the development of a vaccine is vital for countries to stay secure along with combined efforts to cease the further spread of the virus.
Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme at a press conference on Wednesday, “We have a new virus entering the human population for the first time, and therefore it is very hard to predict when we will prevail over it,” reported Xinhua agency.
“I think it’s important to put this on the table: this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away,” said Ryan. He added that without a vaccine, it might take several years for people to build immunity against the virus which means that although the lockdowns might get lifted, people will continue to catch the virus and also die.
“It is important that we be realistic and I don’t think anyone can predict when or if this disease will disappear.” He further said that we might have a shot at eliminating this virus but with the help of a highly effective vaccine that is made available to everyone around the world and stressed that we will need to use it.
Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 technical lead at WHO said that she has come across some people who were apprehensive about using the vaccine. She made everyone acknowledge that vaccine is our weapon against the virus and it should be used when developed.
Ryan added that he believes there’s a big opportunity for the world to convert a disastrous pandemic into a beacon of hope for the future. He insisted on the world to “work together to solve our problem solidarity, through trust, through working together and through a multilateral system that can actually benefit mankind”.
“In some senses, we have control over that future, but it’s going to take a massive effort to do it,” he said, noting that “it’s going to need the political, the financial, the operational, the technical and the community support to be a success”.
Kerhove concluded saying, “We have seen countries bring this virus under control, we have seen countries use public health measures, the fundamentals of public health and epidemiology and clinical care, to bring the virus under control and to suppress transmission to a low enough level where communities can get back to work and open up again. It will take some time before we have the information on these medical interventions and it’s coming and people are working very hard on that. But this is in our hand and we are seeing hope in a number of countries and I really don’t want people to forget that. The trajectory of the pandemic is in our hands.”
On Thursday afternoon, the overall number of global COVID-19 cases stood at 4,446,979, while the death toll increased to 298,447.
