Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) has made a statement saying he believes the coronavirus could very well come to an end this year.
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Although recently much of the world has seen the worst of the virus, with daily cases having reached never-before-seen numbers, Dr. Tedros remains optimistic for the new year.
Vaccine hoarding must come to an end
According to the health expert, for the end to become a reality, countries must work together to stop the spread of the virus. More specifically, Dr. Tedros believes that richer countries must stop hoarding vaccines in order to allow less privileged nations to have a fair chance of fighting the deadly virus. In a statement, he said:
Narrow nationalism and vaccine hoarding by some countries have undermined equity and created the ideal conditions for the emergence of the Omicron variant.
And added:
The longer inequity continues, the higher the risks of the virus evolving in ways we can't prevent or predictIf we end inequity, we end the pandemic.
A new goal to end the pandemic
Low vaccination rates in poorer countries is believed to be the reason why newer mutations have been able to have such a tight grip on the world. Figures provided by WHO has revealed that although richer countriesin Europe and North America have been able to easily fully vaccinate a large percentage of their population, most of Africa's nations have not even been able to receive one jab.
As a result, the WHO has now set up a new goal to fully vaccinate 70% of people in all countries by July in order to finally be able to conquer the coronavirus.
