WHO director says world is entering 4th Covid-19 wave

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The world is currently entering a 4th wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to World Health Organization (WHO) deputy director-general for access to medicines and pharmaceutical products, Brazilian Mariângela Simão.

“We are witnessing the resurgence of Covid-19 cases in Europe. We had over 440,000 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours. And there is underreporting on several continents. The world is entering a 4th wave, but regions have had a different approach to the pandemic,” explained Ms. Simão.

She said the virus continues to evolve with more transmissible variants, but with vaccination there has been a dissociation between cases and deaths, due to the fact that vaccination has lowered the number of deaths from Covid-19. She recalled that immunization reduces hospitalizations but does not stop transmission.

As a result, the director said that the new peaks in Europe are due to the reopening and relaxation of distancing measures in the summer, with inconsistent implementation of prevention measures in countries and regions.

“Increased vaccination coverage does not influence personal hygiene, but it is associated with lower mask use and social distancing. In addition, there is misinformation, contradictory messages which are responsible for killing people,” she pointed out.

A serious issue is the inequality in vaccine access worldwide. “More than 7.5 billion doses have been administered. In low-income countries, less than 5% of people have at least one dose. One of the reasons was that manufacturers signed bilateral agreements with high-income countries and are not prioritizing vaccines for low-income nations,” she said.

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