The WHO is already considering two dates for the ‘end’ of the pandemic in Europe and in the rest of the world

The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has stated that “we have all the tools to end the acute phase of this pandemic“, but, to do so, it is necessary to use them “equally and wisely”. “We must work together to end the acute phase of this pandemic. We cannot let it drag on, teetering between panic and negligence,” the WHO director-general said at a press conference with German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Svenja Schulze.

During his meeting with the German minister, he thanked this country for its collaboration with the WHO and both discussed issues such as the “critical” work of the WHO Hub for Intelligence on Pandemics and Epidemics in Berlin, which aims to prevent of future health emergencies; as well as its contribution to the production of vaccines and other medical tools where they are needed most.

“Germany has been an important friend and long-term partner of the WHO, and in fact is now the largest donor to the WHO,” said Tedros, highlighting the country’s efforts “to build a stronger multilateral health system, with a strong WHO at the center“. As Tedros has highlighted, in his recently approved program for the G7 presidency, “Germany has made an admirable commitment to the equitable distribution of Covid-19 tools, support for the strengthening of health systems in the low-income countries and the consolidation of the global health architecture”.

Thus, he pointed out that Germany’s support for the manufacture of mRNA vaccines in Africa “goes hand in hand with the work of the WHO to develop a self-sufficient vaccine production capacity.” It is, according to the director general of the WHO, a “wise investment” that can provide “enormous benefits to underserved communities”. On this point, Tedros advanced during the press conference that BioNTech, the German biotechnology company that has developed the ‘Comirnaty’ mRNA vaccine together with Pfizer, will announce, in mid-February, the start of production of its vaccine in Rwanda. , Senegal and Ghana.

In relation to this, Tedros recalled that the COVAX mechanism has already delivered billion doses of vaccines, but has warned that 70 percent coverage in all countries is still a long way off. “34 countries have not yet been able to vaccinate 10 percent of their population, and 86 have vaccinated less than 40 percent,” he lamented. However, he pointed out that “vaccines alone will not end the pandemic”, since “many countries need diagnostics, life-saving therapies, including oxygen, and support for the deployment of vaccines”.

“Only by working together and in solidarity can we put an end to this pandemic. And we are all interested in doing so, because, as the pandemic has shown, when health is at risk, everything is at risk”, he concluded, concluding that, by promoting health, “a stable foundation is created for people to prosper , families, communities, economies and nations.