The Head of WHO highlights that most hospitalization and death are in “people who are not vaccinated, not people who are not encouraged.”
The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday said that “no country can increase the exit” from Pandemi Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemi. Towards the week of the Christmas and New Year celebrations, the Head of WHO said to a media direction that the vaccine booster dose could not be seen “as a ticket to continue the planned celebration.”
Citing a report of the experts’ strategic advisory group (wise) about immunization, the Head of WHO emphasized that the focus of vaccination must remain in the decline in death and severe disease. He said about 20% of all vaccine doses provided every day are given as booster or additional doses, expressing concern that the blanket booster program will worsen vaccine inequality.
“The booster blanket program tends to extend a pandemic, rather than ending it, by diverting supply to countries that already have high-level vaccination coverage, giving viruses more opportunities to spread and mutate,” he told the briefing.
Western countries have expanded their booster programs for the majority of adult populations that qualify while many countries have not vaccinated half of their population completely. Tedros highlights that most hospitalization and death are in “people who are not vaccinated, not people who are not encouraged.”
“And we must be very clear that the vaccine we have, remains effective against the Delta and Omicron variants,” he said, adding that global priorities must support all countries to reach 40% target as quickly as possible, and 70% targets in mid 2022.
Which also releases updated guidelines for health workers, recommend the use of respirators or medical masks, in addition to other private protective equipment, when entering the room in the Omicron case suspected or confirmed. It is recommended that the respirator, which includes masks known as N95, FFP2 and others, especially must be imposed in care settings where ventilation is known to be bad.