WHO’s Director-General says inconsistency in public health measures adding to these behaviours
A nurse administers the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to a man in his car at a drive-in vaccination centre in Montpellier, France on Tuesday. Pic/AFP
Confused and complacent behaviour among people is pushing the Coronavirus pandemic to an exponential rise worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
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Adding to these behaviours is “inconsistency in public health measures, the Guardian quoted the WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as saying.
Despite 700 million doses of vaccine administered around the world, there have been seven consecutive weeks of rises in infections. The past week saw 4.4 million cases, representing a 9 per cent increase in infections and a 5 per cent rise in deaths, the report said.
It can take months before the global situation is brought under control, with concerted measures, Ghebreyesus said.
“This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic, when we have proven control measures,” Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s team leader on COVID-19 said. “We are in a critical point of the pandemic right now,” she added.
While the pandemic is long from over, the decrease in cases and deaths during the first two months of the year shows that it can be stopped, Ghebreyesus said.
But, very few people are taking precautions, and some think “they’re relatively young, it doesn’t matter if they get COVID-19”, he said.
On Tuesday, India’s overall COVID-19 caseload increased to 1,36,89,453, currently the second-highest in the world after the US. Agencies
UN chief states six ways to help nations
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for six measures to help countries recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and keep them on track toward
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Financing for development in the context of COVID-19 means an unprecedented effort to mobilise resources and political will, he said.
UK extends vaccines to those above 45 years
The National Health Service (NHS) in England on Tuesday expanded the COVID-19 vaccination programme to the next cohort on its age-based priority list to all above 45 years of age, after it announced that the target to cover over-50s had been met ahead of the April 15 deadline. The government had set a target to offer a jab to all above 50 years, the clinically vulnerable and health and social care workers — about 32 million people — by this Thursday.
US states shut down J&J vaccine sites
Several states in the US have temporarily shut down some Johnson & Johnson vaccine sites after people suffered adverse reactions to the shot. A total of 18 people in North Carolina reported side effects, while 11 people in Colorado reacted to the shot with symptoms ranging from dizziness, nausea and fainting, according to reports.
Stricter curbs at Gaza Strip
The Islamic Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, has decided to tighten the precautionary measures during the upcoming Islamic holy month of Ramadan in an effort to curb COVID-19 spread. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said that traffic all over the Gaza Strip will be banned every day from 7 pm to 6 am.
4,00,951
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours
13,68,29,561
Total no. of cases worldwide
29,48,943
Total no. of deaths worldwide
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