Geneva (Agencies): World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said the COVID-19 pandemic is “far from over” and is still disrupting normal health services, especially life-saving immunisation for children in the poorest countries.
The UN agency is concerned about rising numbers of cases and deaths in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and some Asian countries, even as the numbers flatten or decline in some wealthier nations.
“We have a long road ahead of us and a lot of work to do,” Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference in Geneva, adding that a second wave of infections could be prevented with the right actions.
Tedros expressed concern that the health of children was being threatened by the impact of the coronavirus emergency on vaccination programmes for other diseases.
The novel coronavirus, which emerged late last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, has alrady infected 2.97 million and claimed 205,948 lives.
