(Geneva) The World Health Organization (WHO), meeting in Geneva on Saturday, warned that the coronavirus pandemic was likely to be “very long”.
Posted on August 1 2020 at 13 h 08
France Media Agency
The organization's Emergency Committee, which has met for the fourth time since Friday to reassess the pandemic, “stressed that its duration was certainly going to be very long,” WHO said in a statement.
“The WHO continues to estimate that the risk posed by COVID – 18 is very high,” the statement added. “The emergency committee” [composé de 18membres et 12conseillers] “underlined the importance of a response which must be national, regional and global” to the pandemic.
The coronavirus has infected at least 17, 6 million people in the world and makes more than 680 00 0 dead, according to a count made by AFP from official sources .
The emergency committee asked the WHO to provide all countries with pragmatic guidance on how to respond to the pandemic, “to reduce the risk that responses to the epidemic may fail. 'weaken, in a context of socio-economic pressures'.
The committee also recommends that WHO accelerate research on the still unknown points of the virus, in particular its animal origin and its possible means of propagation by animal.
He also asks that points such as “the modes of transmission [du virus], its potential mutations, immunity and correlates of protection” be clarified.
The committee meeting, which lasted six hours, took place at WHO headquarters in Geneva, with some participants linked by video. It is scheduled to meet again in three months.
“This pandemic is a health crisis as we only see one per century and its effects will be felt for decades to come”, declared Friday the Director General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus .
“Many scientific questions have been resolved, many are still waiting to be”, he added. “Most people on the planet can be affected, even those who do not live in hard-hit areas.”
