Director-General of World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has Monday said that a vaccine would not by itself stop the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the virus was first recorded in November in China, the world has recorded over 54 million, with the virus claiming more than 1.3 million lives.
There has since been a race towards a coronavirus vaccine with various biotech and pharmaceutical firms working tirelessly to produce an effective vaccine.
Two biotech companies (Moderna and Pfizer/Biotech) recently produced vaccine that has proved 94.5% and 90% effective respective.
However, Ghebreyesus has said;
A vaccine will complement the other tools we have, not replace them. A vaccine on its own will not end the pandemic.
WHO’s figures for Saturday showed that 660,905 coronavirus cases were reported to the UN health agency, setting a new high toll.
The figure, and 645,410 registered on Friday, surpassed the previous daily record high of 614,013 recorded on November 7.
Tedros said that supplies of the vaccine would initially be restricted, with;
Health workers, older people and other at-risk populations (to) be prioritized. That will hopefully reduce the number of deaths and enable the health systems to cope.
He, however warned;
That will still leave the virus with a lot of room to move. Surveillance will need to continue, people will still need to be tested, isolated, and cared for, contacts will still need to be traced and individuals will still need to be cared for.
(AFP)
