The identity of Covid-19’s initial case, the so-called ‘zero patient’, may remain a mystery forever, the WHO said, in asking nations to intensify cooperation and information sharing in an effort to overcome the disease.
“We need to be very careful with the use of the phrase ‘patient zero’ which many people refer to as the first initial case. We can never find out who the zero patient was, ” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical leader at Covid-19, said at a press conference on Friday, referring to the organization’s fact-finding mission that arrived in Wuhan, widely regarded as an original pandemic focus, on Thursday. market.
Although China has had great success in its efforts to contain the virus with its two-month blockade imposed on Wuhan at the start of the pandemic, it recently saw an increase in new cases, reporting 130 new infections on Friday – which is however, a far cry from the numbers seen in the Americas or Europe.
The increase in global cases is believed to be caused by new mutant strains of the virus that are arguably much more contagious. The new variants of the Covid-19 in particular “They require a strong and quick effort in research, collaboration between research teams and information sharing”, Professor Didier Houssin, head of the WHO Emergency Committee, said at the conference.
“We are in a race between the virus that will continue to mutate to spread more easily and the humanity that has to try to stop it from spreading.” he said.
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Calling the world “Paralyzed” and “confused,” Houssin suggested developing a global “Scientifically based guidance on the best way to facilitate safe travel” to prevent the total closure of air traffic and, at the same time, to ensure that the virus is contained.
Meanwhile, WHO Secretary General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus argued that the reason the virus is still wreaking havoc worldwide is the failure to break the chain of transmission “At the community level or within families.”
The more the virus is suppressed, the less opportunity it has to mutate. We need to be more efficient than the virus
WHO also hopes that vaccines will help to stem the spread of the disease. Even so, according to Houssin, the target set by the UN health surveillance body for 2021 provides for the vaccination of only about 20% of the global population, including in low-income countries.
The press conference following the WHO Emergency Committee meeting took place when the total number of Covid-19 infections worldwide exceeded 93.8 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. The total number of Covid-19-related deaths reached 2 million.
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