Covid-19: W.H.O. Expects Pandemic to Remain Long Term

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Emergency Committee projects that the Covid-19 pandemic will persist for a long time, and it is thus imperative that efforts to contain it be continued worldwide. According to the W.H.O. official data, the disease has already claimed 675,060 lives and infected almost 17.4 million people globally.

The group of scientists, which met by videoconference, assessed the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic, considering all the scientific information that has emerged on the novel coronavirus over the past three months, the date of the last meeting. The Emergency Committee comprises 18 scientists from several countries.

“A pandemic is a health crisis that occurs once every century and its impact will be felt in the decades to come,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the Committee, according to a press release by the organization.

He also took stock of what has been happening, pointing out that “many countries that thought the worst was over are now facing new outbreaks; others that had been less affected are experiencing an increase in cases and deaths; while countries that have had large outbreaks have managed to control them.”

Guidelines

Among the main guidelines, the Emergency Committee has forwarded to the organization is the need to continue supporting countries with more fragile healthcare services, as well as the need to continue to promote ongoing research to develop one or more treatments and vaccines for Covid-19.

The goal is that, once a vaccine is available, countries with fewer resources should not be sidelined due to their inability to afford it. In other words, the Committee argued that vaccine distribution should be as equitable as possible.

Currently, three potential vaccines (from the United States, England, and China) are in their third phase of clinical trials to test their safety and efficacy. The WHO has noted in this regard that it may be possible for a vaccine to be ready for marketing “in the first half of 2021”.

Regarding travel, the Committee said that countries should take proportionate measures and advise citizens on the risks, assessing their data on a regular basis.

It also recommended that health services be reinforced to allow the detection of new cases and contact tracing.

Source: Agência Brasil