WHO Program Director Ryan: the coronavirus pandemic will continue for a very long time
The director of the World Health Organization’s emergency management program, Michael Ryan, predicted that the coronavirus pandemic will continue for a very long time.
“The question is how long the health emergency will last,” he said. According to Ryan, this is determined by how many people are suffering from COVID-19, how many people are killed by the virus, and to what extent its transmission is controlled.
According to the WHO representative, if it is possible to get rid of hospitalization and mortality and if it is possible to contain the spread of the virus at a low level, then the health emergency can be canceled. “But will the virus disappear? No. This is reality. This virus will stay with us, ” Ryan said.
At the same time, WHO expert Maria van Kerkhove also agreed that the pandemic is far from over. “We all want it to end as soon as possible. Some even behave as if it has ended. But it has not ended, ” she noted.
As Kerkhove explained, the world missed an opportunity to prevent a pandemic at an early stage. “Now the question is what to do, how to use this situation in which we are,” she concluded.
Earlier, Kerkhove said that the world has reached a plateau in the incidence of COVID-19, but the situation with the spread of coronavirus infection does not cease to cause concern. According to her, the number of deaths caused by complications of pneumonia is growing in North and South America. In Europe, the number of detected cases is decreasing, and the death rate is increasing.
