It’s dangerous to assume that there will be no more Covid-19 variants after Omicron or that the world is in the end game of the pandemic, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.
“There are different scenarios for how the pandemic could play out and how the acute phase could end. But it’s dangerous to assume that Omicron will be the last variant or that we are in the end game,” Tedros said during the 150th session of the WHO executive board on Monday. “On the contrary, globally, the conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge.”
“To change the course of the pandemic, we must change the conditions that are driving it,” Tedros continued, adding that the WHO recognizes everyone is tired of the pandemic and restrictions, that businesses and economies are hurting and that “many governments are walking a tightrope, attempting to balance what is effective with what is acceptable to their people.”
Every country is in a unique situation, he said, “and must chart its way out of the acute phase of the pandemic with a careful, stepwise approach,” something that doesn’t have easy answers.
If WHO resources — including evidence, strategies and support — are used in a comprehensive way, the world could see not only an end to the acute phase of the pandemic, but an end to Covid-19 as a global health emergency this year, he said.
But that requires reaching high vaccinations rates, equitable health care and increasing sequencing abilities, he said:
“What does that look like? It means achieving our target to vaccinate 70% of the population of every country, with a focus on the most at-risk groups. It means reducing mortality through strong clinical management beginning with primary health care and equitable access to diagnostics, oxygen and antivirals at the point of care. It means boosting testing and sequencing rates globally to track the virus closely and monitor the emergence of new variants. It means the ability to calibrate the use of public health and social measures when needed. It means restoring and sustaining essential health services. And it means learning critical lessons and defining new solutions now, not waiting until the pandemic is over,” he said.
It is “astonishing” that Covid-19 vaccines work so well against preventing hospitalization and death, including with Omicron, WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19 Maria Van Kerkhove said during a social media live Q&A session on Tuesday, underscoring that it is critical for people to be vaccinated.
“Vaccine equity is absolutely critical, but it’s not vaccine equity in only some countries,” she said. “There are challenges in every single country about reaching those who are most at risk, high income as well as low income.”
“But the fact remains that more than three billion people haven’t received their first dose yet, so we have a long way to go,” she said.