Warn The Threat Of COVID-19 Is Not Over, WHO Director General: This Virus Will Continue To Grow

Illustration of COVID-19. (Unsplash/Gabriella Clare Marino)

JAKARTA - The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday warned that it was too early for countries to declare victory over COVID-19 or halt efforts to stop the transmission.

"It is too early for any country to surrender or declare victory," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

"This virus is dangerous, and continues to evolve before our very eyes," he stressed.

His comments came as Denmark on Tuesday became the first European Union country to lift all of its domestic COVID-19 restrictions, despite a record number of cases of the milder Omicron variant, with a number of other countries considering similar moves.

"We are concerned that the narrative has prevailed in some countries, because of vaccines and because of the high transmission of Omicron and lower severity, preventing transmission is no longer possible, and is no longer necessary," explained Dr. Tedros.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," he said, stressing "more transmission of COVID-19 means more deaths".

Dr. Tedros pointed out that since the Omicron variant was first seen in southern Africa 10 weeks ago, nearly 90 million cases have been reported to the WHO, more than in 2020.

And while the new COVID-19 variant is known to be milder, he stressed "we are now starting to see a very worrying increase in deaths in most areas of the world."

Director General of WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. (Wikimedia Commons/ITU Pictures)

It is very important, he said, to continue working to stop the transmission of the virus.

"We are not calling on any country to return to the so-called lockdown," Tedros stressed, adding "we are calling on all countries to protect their people using every tool in the toolkit, not just a vaccine."

At the same time, WHO Leaders emphasized the need to continue tracking emerging variants, including the Omicron BA.2 sub-lineage.

"This virus will continue to evolve, which is why we ask countries to continue testing, surveillance and sequencing. We cannot fight this virus if we don't know what it is doing," he said.

Meanwhile, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead for COVID-19, said on Tuesday, "We urge caution as many countries have not yet passed the Omicron peak. Many countries have low vaccination coverage rates with highly susceptible individuals in their populations. ."

"So now is not the time to lift everything at once. We always urge, always be careful, both in implementing interventions and withdrawing these interventions steadily and slowly, piece by piece. Because this virus is quite dynamic," Kerkhove added.

The director of the WHO's health emergencies program Mike Ryan urged countries to chart their own paths out of the pandemic and not blindly follow others in leisurely steps.

Ryan said he feared political pressure could cause some countries to open up prematurely, leading to transmission of the virus and unnecessary deaths.

"I think this is a transitional phase for many countries, not every country is in the same situation. Countries that make the decision to open up more widely, also need to ensure the capacity to reintroduce measures, with public acceptance, if needed, " he said. "So it's as if we open the door quickly, you should be able to close it very quickly too," Ryan concluded.