WHO: “The pandemic is not over and neither are its economic consequences”

The CEO of the World Health Organization (WHO)Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned this Thursday that “the pandemic is not over and neither are its economic consequences”, and urged a greater contribution by the main economies of the globe.

LOOK: New Zealand tries to disperse anti-vaccine protesters by repeating “Macarena” and “Baby Shark” ad nauseam

Tedros spoke by videoconference in a panel organized on the sidelines of the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 countries that takes place between today and tomorrow in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The director of the who He welcomed the fact that the G20 Finance meeting included a discussion on the health crisis, since the pandemic, he said, “requires the commitment of all sectors, especially the financial sector.”

• Canada reopens traffic on border bridge with the US blocked by anti-vaccine truckers for a week
• Camilla of Cornwall, wife of Prince Charles, tests positive for coronavirus
• Ómicron deals a “hard blow” to the Hong Kong health system: hospitals are at 90% capacity

He made a direct appeal to the finance ministers of the world’s main economies: “Please fill the existing gap and end the pandemic,” he urged, asking them to donate 16,000 million dollars this year.

Tedros specified that sum of money a few days ago, which would be destined for the ACT Accelerator, the program with which the WHO and other agencies finance the distribution of vaccines, treatments, tests and other tools against COVID-19.

“We are facing a dilemma and that is that significant investments are needed at a time when many countries are feeling the bite (of the pandemic),” he added today.

But he insisted that a “lesson” to be learned from the pandemic is that “health is an investment, not a cost.”

Also participating in the panel were the Italian Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza; his Indonesian counterpart, Budi Gunadi Sadikin; and the Norwegian Minister for International Development, Anne Breathe Tvinnereim.

In addition, Tedros highlighted that 31,000 million dollars are needed annually for programs to fight epidemics, without being clear if the 16,000 million are framed within that package.

Although he admitted that discussing the prevention of future epidemics is “vital”, he clarified that this “should not distract us from the present”.

Tedros anticipated last Monday that the possibility that the pandemic is under control in 2022 is still there, but the world “is at increasing risk of wasting it.”

As many as 116 countries could miss the global target of 70 percent of humanity having been vaccinated against the virus. COVID-19 in the middle of the year, a goal that experts consider necessary to achieve herd immunity.

• They kill el Koki, one of the most wanted and dangerous criminals in Venezuela
• The Playboy bunny who married an 89-year-old rich man and was left without an inheritance
• Who was the Koki, the dangerous criminal boss of Cota 905 who was shot down by the Venezuelan police
• Simon Leviev, the “Tinder scammer” accused of stealing millions from several women he met on the dating app
• Hunting Pablo Escobar’s hippos, a “necessary option” to control his invasion in Colombia
• Unusual: they find the body of an old Italian woman on a chair two years after her death

Source: Elcomercio

Deshawn