Despite the severe global number of coronavirus pandemics, the World Health Organization warns that the outbreak “is not necessarily the big one” and urges the world to be “serious” about the preparation.
“This is an alarm call,” WHO emergency chief Michael Ryan told a news conference on Monday, a year after the UN agency first heard about the new spread of Mistakes in China
Since its emergence in Wuhan, COVID-19 has killed nearly 1.8 million people worldwide, out of more than 81 million infected. In the US, some 335,000 people have died and more than 19 million have become infected.
“This pandemic has been very serious,” Ryan said, according to the Agence França-Presse. “It has spread around the world extremely quickly and has affected every corner of this planet, but this is not necessarily the big one.”
He stressed that although the virus is “highly transmissible and kills people … its current mortality (rate) is reasonably low compared to other emerging diseases.
“We need to prepare for something that may be even more serious in the future,” Ryan added.
Bruce Aylward, a senior WHO adviser, also warned that while the world had made huge scientific advances, including the development of vaccines at record speeds, it remained far from preparing to prevent future pandemics.
“We are in the second and third wave of this virus and we are not yet ready to treat and manage them,” he said. “So while we’re better prepared … we’re not entirely ready for this one, let alone for the next one.”
Meanwhile, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed hope that the pandemic has helped the world be better prepared to deal with future threats.
“In terms of awareness, I think we’re getting it right now,” the general manager said, adding that “it was time to be really serious.”
He also cited the two new strains of the virus that have emerged in the UK and South Africa that appear to be more infectious than the others.
“We are working with scientists from the UK and South Africa who are conducting epidemiological and laboratory studies, which will guide the next steps,” he said.