More Variants Will Emerge & COVID-19 Will Drag On: WHO Chief

New York: The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that the COVID-19 pandemic will drag on and create an ‘ideal’ condition for more new variants of the coronavirus to emerge.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus identified two reasons why the global pandemic, which broke two years ago, will continue.

The health agency of United Nations has for long been stressing on a more equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Rather than focussing on booster dose, WHO has been urging richer nations to help economically backward countries complete inoculation among its population.

According to Ghebreyesus, inequitable access to vaccines and tests, along with high transmission, are creating an environment to help more variants emerge.

He also observed that the less severe Omicron variant is driving a “false narrative” in several nations that the pandemic “is over”.

“Far beyond the short-term economic impacts that the COVID-19 crisis had caused, it has seriously set the world back towards the sustainable development goals,” Ghebreyesus said, adding that “closer collaboration” is needed between health and finance sectors.

Last month, during the 150th session of the WHO Executive Board meeting, Ghebreyesus emphasised on countries working together to end the pandemic this year itself, without “lurching between panic and neglect”. He said that to manage the current scenario, nations need to use strategies and tools comprehensively – which include the goal to jab at least 70 per cent of the population, ramping up testing, looking out for more variants, and constantly coming up with solutions to pandemic-related problems.