‘Covid-19 here to stay, won’t vanish completely’

WHO official says it is on its way to becoming an endemic disease and we have to learn how to treat it and how to protect ourselves from it

The way the novel Coronavirus pandemic is developing suggests that the virus will never go away completely, WHO Representative to Russia Melita Vujnovic said on Sunday. The virus will circulate as an endemic disease, TASS news agency quoted Vujnovic as saying on the Soloviev Live YouTube channel.

“Coronavirus is on its way to becoming an endemic disease. This means it won’t go away. But we have to learn how to treat it and how to protect ourselves from it. Most importantly, we need to contain the outbreak of the infection now and reduce the number of those vulnerable to it. Otherwise, new variants will emerge in an unpredictable fashion,” she said.

Further, Vujnovic noted that evidence indicates that the Omicron variant is less severe than other strains. However, its dangers should not be underestimated, and it is too early for the humanity to relax, she said.”There is evidence now that Omicron seems to be less serious than (previous variants), but this does not mean that it should not be taken seriously. The coronavirus infection may lead to very serious consequences,” she said.

31,20,435 No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours
31,86,48,834 Total no. of cases worldwide
55,18,343 Total no. of deaths worldwide

UK expands COVID booster rollout to teenagers

Around 40,000 teenagers in England will be eligible for a top-up booster dose to protect against COVID-19 as Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) expands the booking service to 16 and 17 year olds from Monday.

COVID programme delivers 1 bn doses

The World Health Organization said Sunday that a UN-backed programme shipping coronavirus vaccines to many poor countries has now delivered 1 billion doses, but that milestone “is only a reminder of the work that remains” after hoarding and stockpiling in rich countries. A shipment of 1.1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Rwanda on Saturday included the billionth 
dose supplied via the COVAX programme, the U.N. health agency said.

Omicron cause of death in 3 Iranians

Iranian state television said Saturday that three Iranian citizens have died after they were infected with omicron, the new, more easily spread variant of the coronavirus. Iran first detected the omicron variant in mid-December but this was the first time fatalities were reported.

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