WHO chief says end to the tunnel 'long way off'

We are still in the tunnel. We are just beginning to see the light at the end of that tunnel, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, on Thursday, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The end is still a long way off, and the tunnel is still dark, with many obstacles that could trip us up if we don't take care, the WHO chief cautioned.

The US president Joe Biden, who announced a few days ago that the COVID 19 epidemic was over, is not whitewashing the situation, unlike the US president Joe Biden. His more realistic assessment should prompt the world to avoid complacency as it is too early and dangerous to drop our guard.

In its latest epidemiological update, the WHO said over 9,800 deaths were reported last week, a decline of 17 percent from a week earlier, while 3.2 million new cases were reported. The UN health agency warned that the falling number of reported cases is deceptive, since many countries have cut back on testing and may not be detecting less serious cases.

Biden's chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said the world should not be too hasty in jumping to the same conclusion as Biden, warning We are not where we need to be if we are going to quote 'Live with the virus' because we know we are not going to be able to eliminate it, and that the immunity that has been induced by vaccines or infections is also transient. Such warnings are particularly important as the pandemic fatigue has caused people to loosen their guard. It is important for experts to tell the truth and political leaders to be sober-minded about the situation.

There's still a long way to go before vaccines and medicines are developed that can enable us to live with the disease.

There is no certainty that there won't be a resurgence of the epidemic because of a new variant of the virus, which may be highly transmissible and lethal. People need to be told to stay on their guard and take all precautions possible to avoid being infected.

It shouldn't have any correlation with politics when responding to COVID 19. It is irresponsible and immoral for politicians to politicize the epidemic. Protecting people's lives should be the priority.