GENEVA: World Health Organisation (WHO) experts have said that coronavirus will pose significant risks until vaccines are developed.
Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) emergencies programme said that the parts of the world have started to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the virus will still pose significant risks until vaccines are developed, he added.
According to Ryan, many countries are still in the eye of the pandemic, others were beginning to show it is possible to contain the disease to some extent. “In that sense, there is hope,” he said.
Ryan asserted, “At a global level, the situation is still very serious but the pattern of the disease and the trajectory of the virus is very different in different parts of the world right now.”
He further said, “What we are learning is that it is possible to get this disease under control and it is possible to begin resuming normal social life, with a new way of having to do that, and with extreme caution and vigilance.”
More than 3.44 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 243,015 have died. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December.
The WHO had earlier urged caution among nations relaxing their social distancing measures, stressing the importance of monitoring for new jumps in infections as lockdowns are eased.
Read more: WHO defends coronavirus outbreak response
