Published in: The Daily Star
Date: 07 October, 2021

The World Health Organization’s Covid-19 chief warned Tuesday “We’re not out of the woods” in the fight against the pandemic, even if many people thought it was nearly over.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for WHO’s Covid-19, said last week 3.1 million known new cases were reported to the UN health agency, and 54,000 more deaths — though the true numbers would be much higher.

“The situation is still incredibly dynamic. And it’s dynamic because we don’t have control over this virus,” she said during a live presentation on the WHO’s social media channels.

“We’re not out of the woods. We’re very much in the middle of this pandemic. But where in the middle… we’re not quite sure yet, because frankly we’re not using the tools we have right now to get us closer to the end.”

She added: “What I really struggle with is in some cities we see ICUs (intensive care units) and hospitals full and people dying — yet on the streets people are acting like it’s completely over.

“You can’t have it both ways.”

Because of the way the world had handled the crisis, Covid-19 would not be eradicated and was here to stay, she added.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 4.8 million people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

Van Kerkhove said deaths now were largely happening among people who had not been vaccinated.

“From the countries that are providing that information, the rate of hospitalisation and death is by far really among those who are unvaccinated,” she said.

Van Kerkhove also hit out at Covid-19 misinformation and disinformation circulating on the internet.

“It is resulting in people dying. There is no way to sugar-coat that,” she said.

Van Kerkhove said the WHO was having discussions about the shape of the pandemic over the next three to 18 months.

The US expert said she saw Covid-19 eventually coming under control.

“But we will still have pockets of individuals who are not vaccinated — either because they don’t have access, they refuse, or they can’t be vaccinated — and we can still see outbreaks,” she said.

Van Kerkhove said the virus was here to stay.

“The possibility to eradicate this virus, or even eliminate this virus at a global level was lost early on,” she said.

“And it was lost because we didn’t, at a global level, attack this virus as strongly as we could.”

RUSSIA REPORTS RECORD DEATHS

Russia reported a record high number of daily coronavirus deaths yesterday as the country struggles with stubbornly high infection rates and regions beyond Moscow cautiously bring back pandemic restrictions.

The world’s fifth worst-hit country with more than 7.5 million infections, Russia has seen cases climb since August driven by the contagious Delta variant and a sluggish vaccinations drive.

A government tally recorded 929 Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, Russia’s highest daily virus death toll since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Several Russia-made jabs have been available for months, but authorities have struggled to encourage its vaccine-sceptic population to get inoculated.

Polls show that more than half of Russians do not plan to get a shot.

As of yesterday, just under 30 percent of Russia’s 146 million population had been fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website, which tallies Covid-19 data from the regions.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said earlier this week that death rates were high among unvaccinated Russians.

The surging infections have come without any real pandemic restrictions to limit the spread, but several regions have re-introduced QR codes for access to public places.

Moscow — the epicentre of Russia’s outbreak — has so far held back on reintroducing restrictions.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/health/disease/coronavirus/news/not-out-the-woods-2192481