KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that if countries don’t work uniformly to contain the spread of Covid-19, the death toll could reach two million.
According to a CNBC report, Dr Mike Ryan, the executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, said that the global death toll could reach two million or more even before a Covid-19 vaccine becomes widely available, if world leaders don’t better implement lifesaving measures.
“The time for action is now on every single aspect of this strategic approach. Not just test and trace, not just clinical care, not just social distancing, not just hygiene, not just masks, not just vaccines. Do it all. And unless we do it all (two million deaths) are not only imaginable but unfortunately, and sadly very likely,” Dr Ryan was quoted saying.
The global death toll from coronavirus has touched over one million deaths so far. WHO’s technical lead on the Covid-19 pandemic, Maria Van Kerkhove, said that several countries in Europe are reporting an increasing trend in the number of positive Covid-19 cases.
“We’re at the end of September, not even toward the end of September, and we haven’t even started our flu season yet. What we are worried about is the possibility that these trends are going in the wrong direction,” Van Kerkhove said.
Dr Bruce Aylward, senior advisor to the WHO director-general, reportedly said that the possibility of another one million people dying is the function of whether tools, approaches, and knowledge that is already there and not a vaccine, is put into work,to save lives and prevent transmission.
“If we start thinking about it as a function of the vaccine, people will unnecessarily and unacceptably die as we wait for a vaccine. We should not be waiting,” he said.
