"Pandemic is far from over, Countries should have Listened to us," says WHO Chief!

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said to a Geneva News conference that the novel coronavirus pandemic was far from over. He expressed the agency’s deep concern about the impact of the pandemic on health care systems and especially on children. 

He expressed that the rising number of cases and trends coming in from Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and some Asian Countries are very alarming. “We have a long road ahead of us and a lot of work to do”, he added.

He also spoke about the shortage of vaccines that almost 21 countries have reported due to the border restrictions that are in place in view of the pandemic. He cited the data produced by GAVI global vaccine alliance. 

On the same day, WHO also defended the UN health body’s handling of the pandemic after US halted its funding to the health agency and accused the agency of covering up for China.

“WHO warned that the COVID-19 outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, when there were no deaths and only 82 cases registered outside China. The world should have listened to WHO then, carefully,” the health agency’s chief said in a virtual press briefing as per NDTV’s report. 

He added that "We advised the whole world to implement a comprehensive public health approach, and we said: 'Find, test, isolate, and do contact tracing 'You can check for yourselves.”