Coronavirus / More new Corona variants will come now What can lead to emergence of Covid variants WHO chief

Will the global corona pandemic wreak more havoc? Will more new variants of Corona come out? World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has answered all these questions. He pointed to two factors that could further exacerbate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and lead to an "ideal situation" for more new variants of the virus to emerge. He cited unequal access to corona vaccine and lack of corona test as the main reason for this.

Speaking on vaccine equity, which has long been at the forefront of the United Nations Health Agency's (WHO) agenda, Ghebreyesus said people do not have equal access to corona vaccines and tests, apart from the high transmission of corona virus. A suitable environment is being created for more variants to emerge. He also talked about the low severity of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. He said the nature of Omicron is "running a false narrative" in many countries that "the pandemic is over".

Ghebreyesus said it has set the world "seriously" toward "sustainable development goals" "far ahead" of the short-term economic impacts caused by the COVID-19 crisis. Backing his point, the WHO chief said that in order to tackle this situation, "close cooperation" between the health and finance sectors is important.

Last month, during the 150th session of the WHO's executive board meeting, Ghebreyesus called on countries to work together to end the pandemic this year without "panic and neglect". He said that to manage the current scenario, nations need to use a wide range of strategies and tools - including aiming to vaccinate at least 70 per cent of the population, speed up testing, seek more variants and Involves finding solutions to problems related to persistent pandemics.