Foreign Property News | Posted by Shwe Zin Win
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday the world must be better prepared for the next pandemic, as he called on countries to invest in public health.
More than 27.19 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 888,326 have died, according to a Reuters tally, since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
“This will not be the last pandemic,” Tedros told a news briefing in Geneva. “History teaches us that outbreaks and pandemics are a fact of life. But when the next pandemic comes, the world must be ready – more ready than it was this time.”
The head of the World Health Organisation says he hopes the world can end the coronavirus pandemic in less than two years - less time than it took for the 1918 flu pandemic to be stopped.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described COVID-19 as a “once-in-a-century health crisis” and said that while globalisation had allowed the virus to spread quicker than the flu did in 1918, there was also now the technology to stop it that hadn't been available a century ago.
“We hope to finish this pandemic (in) less than two years, especially if we can pool our efforts,” he said during a press briefing on Friday.
WHO's emergencies chief Dr Michael Ryan noted that the 1918 pandemic hit the globe in three distinct waves and that the second wave, which started during the fall of 1918, was the most devastating. But he said it didn't appear COVID-19 was following the same pattern.
“This virus is not displaying a similar wave-like pattern,” he said. “When the virus is not under control, it jumps straight back up.”
Ryan said that while pandemic viruses often settle into a seasonal pattern, that didn't appear to be the case for the coronavirus.
The World Health Organization had updated its guidance to recommend that governments ask everyone to wear fabric face masks in public areas where there is a risk to reduce the spread of the disease.
Ref: reuters
