Covid-19 Declared No Longer A Global Health Emergency But Let’s Take Care
- Published By Chief Editor For The Statesman Digital
- 1 year ago
"Emergency Committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I've accepted that advice. It is therefore with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency."
These were the words of World Health Organisation (WHO) Secretary General Tedros Adhanom which for sure were well received as it mark sort of an end to threat of a pandemic that literary brought the whole world to sorry state.
But the WHO SG warned that the removal of the highest level of alert did not mean the danger was over and said the emergency status could be reinstated if the situation changed – so that means, we are not yet off the hook and we all need to be extra careful not to plunge again into those dark moments the pandemic took us through.
With the new World Health Organisation advise, it will now be up to individual countries to manage Covid-19 in the way they think best.
It’s a fact governments have strengthened healthcare systems across the world and rolled out vaccination drives. Tourism and travel business is growing positively.
It’s good people learned sufficiently from the outbreak to be ready to fight off new emerging microbes - measures imposed took us through a learning journey on how to deal with a pandemic.
Globally, vaccines were one of the major turning points in the pandemic. According to the WHO, 13 billion doses have been given, allowing many people to be protected from serious illness and death.
But in many countries, vaccines have not been administered as desired - not to 100 percent level.
According to available statistics, more than 765 million confirmed Covid infections have been recorded worldwide.
Covid-19 vaccines reduced the potential global death toll during the pandemic by almost two-thirds in their first year, saving an estimated 19.8 million lives, according to a mathematical modeling study by The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
It was estimated that 18.1 million deaths would have occurred during the study period without vaccination. Of those, the model estimated that vaccination prevented 14.4 million deaths.
Of those prevented deaths, they estimated that 15.5 million (78.2 percent) were due to direct vaccine effects.
The remainder was due to indirect vaccine affects through reduced disease transmission and lower burden on healthcare systems.
According to Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), little more than 50 percent of the continent's 1.2 billion people are fully inoculated against coronavirus.
Vaccination drives in Africa helped greatly, with Covid-19 vaccines being administered in almost all African countries at a good rate and there is need to encourage those who have not been vaccinated to go for the jab so that we create a safe environment for all.
Safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines are a game-changing tool in the fight against a pandemic that ripped through the world.
Being vaccinated does not mean that we can throw caution to the wind and put ourselves and others at risk - we still need to be careful and take precautions as we strive to have a safe surrounding.
Coming down to East Africa data shows that up to 40 million Covid-19 vaccines could go to waste as the fight against the deadly coronavirus slowed down due to apathy and logistical hitches.
Even as the world fully opens up and relaxes most of the Covid-19 measures, emphasis should be on full vaccination for all adults - we need to be safe and be extra careful. Good Health is priceless.
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