Director General World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adanom Ghebreyesus warned of new pandemics and called on the world to prepare to deal with the next challenges. He stated this in a widespread video message in connection with the International Day for Anti-Epidemic Preparedness, reports TASS .
According to him, the pandemic that emerged in 2020 will not be the last, as outbreaks of viruses are a reality in life. “It’s hard to believe that a year ago COVID-19 was absolutely unknown to us. Over the past 12 months, our world has turned upside down,” the head of the WHO stressed. Thus, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic “has gone beyond the disease itself and has far-reaching consequences for societies and economies.”
Gebreyesus called for lessons to be learned from what happened, in particular, to direct investments in the prevention of emergencies and develop primary health care. He also found it necessary to consider the critical interactions between humans and animals, as well as the threats posed by climate change – as the current pandemic has shown a close relationship between the health of people, animals and the planet.
Earlier, the number of cases of coronavirus infection in the world exceeded 80 million. As of December 26, 80,027,056 cases of COVID-19 were registered in the world. Of these, more than 45 million have recovered and more than 1.7 million have died. The largest number of detected infections is observed in the USA, India, Brazil.