Sharjah24 – Reuters: World Health Organization emergencies program head Michael Ryan urged countries on Wednesday (July 7) to use extreme caution when reopening their economies from COVID-19 restrictions so as "not to lose the gains you have made."
"The idea that everyone is protected and it's Kumbaya and everything goes back to normal, I think right now is a very dangerous assumption, anywhere in the world and it's still a dangerous assumption in the European environment," he said.
WHO director-general Tedros reminded reporters that the pandemic was not over and that the 4 million reported deaths milestone has just been passed.
Asked if the logic of the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who set out plans on Monday to end social and economic COVID-19 restrictions in England on July 19, was to reach herd immunity, Ryan said: "I'm not aware that that's the logic driving our colleagues in the United Kingdom, I suspect it's not. I would like to verify that that's the logic, but the logic of more people being infected is better, is, I think, a logic that has proven its moral emptiness and its epidemiologic stupidity previously".
Ryan also warned that countries with low COVID-19 vaccination rates, combined with the lifting of restrictions, were a "toxic mixture".
"We are not there yet. We need to stick to the plan, so we need to be careful, doesn't matter what the event is," he added.
WHO technical lead for COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove also warned that the pandemic was not over and that the number of cases reported in the past days were worrying.
"We are not in a good place," she said, adding that "there are more than two dozen countries that have epidemic curves that are almost vertical right now. Almost vertical. This is not the situation we should be in when we have tools at hands."
For an optimal experience, please
