The world health organization has called for the suspension of gatherings during the Christmas holidays to avert the spread of the coronavirus and the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
According to the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “an event canceled is better than a life canceled.”
To him “It’s better to cancel now and celebrate later than to celebrate now and grieve later”,
Dr. Ghebreyesus indicated that it is a known fact that many wish to spend time with family and friends however it is important for leaders across the world to make difficult decisions to protect their citizens.
“All of us are sick of this pandemic. All of us want to spend time with friends and family. All of us want to get back to normal. The fastest way to do this is for all of us leaders and individuals to make the difficult decisions that must be made to protect ourselves and others.”
Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday, he said the omicron is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant.
Data suggest that Omicron’s community transmission has a doubling time between 1.5 and three days.
The World Data also indicate that only 48% of the world’s population has been fully vaccinated however upper-middle-income countries moved at a much faster pace to fully vaccinate about 70% of their population. Also, the rate of lower-middle-income countries remains at 33% with just 3.7% for low-income nations.
According to Ghebreyesus, it is possible to end the pandemic in 2022 but he adds that the world first must end inequity by insuring 70% of the population of every country is vaccinated by the middle of next year.
Read also: 2021 Christmas in Cape Coast amidst the deadly pandemic
Source: ATLFMNEWS
