'Conditions are ideal for more transmissible, more dangerous variants to emerge'

The World Health Organizations WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for cooperation and collaboration in the face of common threats from the Covid19 pandemicThe WHO chief made the remarks on Friday at a panel discussion titled Get Well Soon Finding a Way Out of the Pandemic during the ongoing Munich Security Conference MSC reports Xinhua news agencyHe described as dangerous the narrative that the pandemic was over with high vaccine coverage in some countries and denied claims that the Omicron variant was less severeTedros recalled that 70000 people were dying each week from a preventable and treatable disease that 83 per cent of the population in Africa was yet to receive a single Covid19 vaccine dose and that the healthcare systems across the world continued to strain and crack under the caseloadIn fact the conditions are ideal for more transmissible more dangerous variants to emerge he saidWe can end the Covid19 pandemic as a global health emergency this year We have the tools We have the knowhowTedros called on all countries to fill the urgent financing gap of USD 16 billion for the Access to Covid19 Tools ACT Accelerator to make vaccines tests treatments and personal protective equipment available globallyThe ACTAccelerator was established in April 2020 just weeks after the pandemic was declared to speed up the development and access to Covid19 tests treatments and vaccines The global vaccine solidarity initiative COVAX is one of its four pillarsCompared with the costs of another year of economic turmoil 16 billion dollars is frankly peanuts he saidAccording to Tedros substantial resources for strengthening global health security were needed both nationally and globally Ending this pandemic must remain our focus At the same time we must learn the lessons it is teaching usHe emphasised that any effort to strengthen the global health security architecture could only succeed by attaching importance to the role of the WHO rather than creating new mechanisms which he believed would only create further fragmentation and potentially leave the world less safeConfusion and incoherence have fuelled the pandemic he said stressing that we need cooperation and collaboration in the face of common threats Stronger systems and tools are required to prevent detect and respond rapidly to epidemics and pandemicsTedros concluded his speech by giving an answer to the question he raised at the beginning when will the Covid19 pandemic endIt will end when we choose to end it Because ultimately its not a matter of chance its a matter of choice he saidThe threeday MSC was opened on Friday with a theme focusing on unlearning helplessness There is a mounting feeling of helplessness in many societies across the world in the face of a growing number of crises and conflicts according to a security report published ahead of the conferenceThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever