The Omicron variant affects 100 people every three seconds in the world. But if there is progress in vaccination and dosage distribution around the world, the acute phase of the Kovid-19 pandemic will end in 2022 with the declaration of a global health emergency. The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Gebrias, made the statement while launching the Executive Council meeting of the Entity this Monday, urging the world to take up the task of ending the crisis. The next twelve months.

For him, there are ways to reach a more sustainable situation. But betting on the end of the epidemic and the strategies that allow the virus to spread easily is “dangerous.”

“This Sunday marks two years since I declared a public health emergency of international concern – a high-level alarm under international law about the spread of Kovid-19,” he said.

“At that time, less than 100 cases and deaths were reported outside China. Two years later, about 350 million cases and more than 5.5 million deaths were reported – we know these numbers are low,” he said.

In his opinion, last week, the pollution rate broke all records. 100 cases are reported every three seconds, with one person losing their life every 12 seconds.

Since Omichron was first identified nine weeks ago, more than 80 million cases have been reported to the World Health Organization – more than reported in 2020.

According to Tedros, so far, there has been no increase in explosion deaths in the cases. But he warns that deaths are on the rise in all regions, especially in Africa, where vaccines have the least access.

For him, the world will have to accept that it lives with the virus. “It is true that in the near future we will live with Kovid. .

But he warns that learning to live with Kovid does not mean the world will “give this virus a free ride”.

“Just because we accept 50,000 deaths a week from preventable and treatable disease does not mean that we are accepting an unacceptable burden on our health care systems as weary health workers go back to the forefront every day,” he said.

“This does not mean that we are ignoring the long – term effects of COVID, which we still do not fully understand. It does not mean that we are betting on a virus that cannot control or predict evolution,” he warned.

Will the acute phase of the epidemic end in 2022?

Tedros first predicted that the world would work to end the acute phase of the epidemic by 2022. However, in his opinion, this does not include considering or classifying omiciron as a final variant. Gently.

“There are different scenarios for how the pandemic will manifest and how the acute phase will end, but it is dangerous to assume that the omiciron will be the final variant or that it will be the final game,” he said.

“On the contrary, globally, the conditions are right for more variants to emerge. The potential for a more transferable, more lethal variant is very real,” he warned.

In his assessment, to change the course of an epidemic, the international community needs to change the circumstances that lead to it.

“If countries make comprehensive use of these strategies and tools, we can end the acute phase of the epidemic this year. We can end COVID-19 as a global health emergency,” he said.

This means that, according to the World Health Organization, each country has reached the goal of vaccinating 70% of the population, focusing on the highest risk groups. It also means reducing mortality through strong clinical management, starting with primary health care and equal access to diagnostics, oxygen and antivirals during the care phase.

“It means closely monitoring the virus, monitoring and evaluating the emergence of new variants, and the ability to calibrate the use of social and public health measures when needed,” he said.

“If countries can do all this well, we can end Kovid as a global health emergency, and we can do it this year,” Tedros insisted.