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The WHO believes that humanity has passed almost 60% of the way in the fight against COVID-19

11 October 2021 02:43 (UTC +04:00)

Chief researcher of the organization Soumya Swaminathan, said that it is premature to predict the timing of the end of the pandemic, APA reports quoting freenews,

Humanity will soon pass 60% of the way in the fight against COVID-19. However, unexpected obstacles may still be ahead, so it is premature to predict the timing of the end of the pandemic. This was stated in an interview published on Sunday with the Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick by the chief researcher of the World Health Organization (WHO), Soumya Swaminathan.

Answering the question of where humanity is now, “if we compare the pandemic with a marathon,” she said: “I hope that we will soon overcome 60% of the route. However, it is possible that we will have to climb another unexpected mountain.”

“It would be premature to say that we will soon cross [the finish line]; it is not so,” Swaminathan said. She explained that “there are too many unknowns ahead,” and among them is the unexpected appearance of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
In this regard, the Chief Researcher drew attention to the significant gap in the coverage of the population with vaccination against COVID-19 in different countries and regions of the world. In particular, in some States, 70-80% of the population have been vaccinated, and in Africa, the vaccination rate does not reach 4%. “The longer we put up with this situation, the higher the risk of new variants [of coronavirus],” she concluded.