The World Health Organization insisted Monday there was still hope of conquering the coronavirus pandemic despite the suffering behind the looming landmarks of 750,000 deaths and 20 million cases.
With both figures expected to be reached within days, the WHO stressed it was never too late to take action to suppress the COVID-19 crisis that has gripped the planet and is the cause of more than half a million deaths on a global scale.
WHO pushes to “suppress the virus effectively” despite rising death toll
“This week we’ll reach 20 million registered cases of COVID-19 and 750,000 deaths,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference.
Read more: WHO urges aggressive measures against virus as flare-ups spark new closures
“Behind these statistics is a great deal of pain and suffering. Every life lost matters. I know many of you are grieving and that this is a difficult moment for the world.
“But I want to be clear: there are green shoots of hope and… it’s never too late to turn the outbreak around.”
Tedros gave examples of countries that had successfully clamped down on the spread of COVID-19, citing New Zealand and Rwanda, and praised nations that had suffered major national outbreaks and were now responding quickly to local spikes.
"My message is crystal clear: suppress, suppress, suppress the virus.
If we suppress #COVID19 effectively, we can safely open up societies"-@DrTedros
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) August 10, 2020
“My message is crystal clear: suppress, suppress, suppress the virus,” he said.
“If we suppress the virus effectively, we can safely open up societies.”
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 731,500 people and infected nearly 19.9 million worldwide since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled at 1100 GMT on Monday.
Vaccine race: more than a 100 candidates
The race to produce a safe and effective vaccine is well under way at unprecedented speed.
A total of 165 candidate vaccines are being worked on around the world, according to a WHO overview.
Read more: Coronavirus immune response: Scientists search for alternative to antibodies
Of those, 139 are still in pre-clinical evaluation, while the other 26 are in the various phases of being tested on humans, of which six are the furthest ahead, having reached Phase 3 of clinical evaluation.
However, WHO health emergencies programme director Michael Ryan said that finding a vaccine would not automatically spell the end for COVID-19.
“We have perfectly effective polio and measles vaccines, and we still struggle to eradicate or eliminate those diseases,” the Irish epidemiologist said.
"Remember: we have perfectly effective polio vaccines, perfectly effective measles vaccines, yet we still struggle to eradicate or eliminate those diseases.
So having an effective vaccine is only PART of the answer," –@WHO director @DrMikeRyan on #COVID19 💉s at a briefing (1/2)
— Global Health Strategies (@GHS) August 10, 2020
“Having an effective vaccine is only part of the answer. You’ve got to be able to deliver that vaccine to a population that want and demand to have that vaccine.”
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, said experts did not yet have an answer as to whether people infected with one of the four globally-circulating common cold coronaviruses had some level of protection against the new coronavirus.
Defeating the virus with brains
Scientists think COVID-19 originated in bats and could have been transmitted to humans via another mammal.
Read more: China’s novel strategies overcome the novel coronavirus
Ryan said that adding billions to the global population, living in densely-packed conditions and exploiting the environment was fostering the conditions needed for diseases to jump species from animals to humans.
“We are actively creating the pressures that are driving the breaches of those barriers. We need to do better at managing the risks associated with that,” he said.
Ryan said the virus it was “brutal in its simplicity and its cruelty but it doesn’t have a brain”.
He said humanity could therefore outsmart it “but we’re not doing such a great job right now”.
Read more: Bill Gates says world population should be injected with COVID-19 vaccine
Van Kerkhove said the goal of the new coronavirus was to “make more virus” and find individuals to pass between without killing too many of its hosts and thereby ending its chances of transmission.
The US expert said it could be beaten with the “very unsophisticated” measures available now, such as physical distancing, regular handwashing, wearing facemasks and respiratory etiquette.
“Everybody on the planet needs to understand they have a role to play,” she said.
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk