The corona virus crisis is not over yet. UN Chief Antonio Guterres has warned the world amid fears of a fourth wave in India. He has said that 15 lakh cases of corona are coming every day. Large numbers of patients are being found in Asia, while a new wave is spreading across Europe.
In a video message ‘One World Protected-Break Covid Now’ at the Gavi Kovax Advance Market Commitment Summit-2022 on Friday (April 8, 2022), the UN Secretary-General said, “This meeting is important to remind us that the COVID The -19 pandemic is not over yet. On an average 15 lakh new cases are being reported daily. A large number of patients are being found in Asia. A new wave is spreading across Europe.”
According to him, some countries are recording the highest death rates since the start of the pandemic. According to Guterres, “The Omicron variant of the corona took everyone by surprise and it is a reminder of how quickly the virus can mutate and spread in the absence of high vaccination rates.”
The UN Secretary-General lamented that some high-income countries are preparing to give their citizens a second booster dose, while one-third of the global population has not even started to be vaccinated. He added, “This is a cruel truth of our unequal world. It is also becoming the main reason for the existence of new forms, more deaths… and increasing economic troubles for human society.”
Guterres said – the question of ‘when’ should arise, not ‘if’ regarding the knock of the next variant. He said, “We are far from the target of immunizing 70 per cent of the population of every country by the middle of this year. The new pattern coming out on an average every four months is a warning about how important it is to adhere to the deadline.”
Guterres’s comments come at a time when, on average, a new form of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has emerged every four months. He appealed to governments and pharmaceutical companies to work together to make the vaccine accessible to everyone, everywhere.