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Agence France-Presse

The novel coronavirus has had a devastating impact around the globe, but the World Health Organization warned that worse pandemics could lie ahead, urging the world to get “serious” about preparedness.
“This is a wake-up call,” WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan told reporters at a briefing on Monday marking a year since the UN agency first learned of the new virus spreading in China.
Since then, Covid-19 has killed nearly 1.8 million people around the world, out of over 80 million infected.
“This pandemic has been very severe,” Ryan acknowledged.
“It has spread around the world extremely quickly and it has affected every corner of this planet, but this is not necessarily the big one.”
He stressed that while the virus is “very transmissible, and it kills people … its current case fatality (rate) is reasonably low in comparison to other emerging diseases.”
“We need to get ready for something that may even be more severe in the future.”


WHO senior adviser Bruce Aylward also cautioned that while the world had made huge scientific progress to address the coronavirus crisis, including developing vaccines at record speed, it remained far from prepared to ward off future pandemics.
“We are into second and third waves of this virus and we are still not prepared to deal with and manage those,” he told the briefing.
“So while we are better prepared … we are not fully prepared for this one, let alone the next one.”
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus meanwhile voiced hope that the Covid-19 pandemic had helped the world become more prepared to tackle future threats.
Russia admits fatalities are three times higher than reported
“In terms of awareness, I think we are now getting it,” he said.
Fears have been raised by a new strain of Covid-19 first detected in Britain and believed by experts to be potentially more transmissible.
“We are working with scientists in the UK and South Africa who are carrying out epidemiologic and laboratory studies, which will guide next steps,” he said.
He hailed the two countries for testing and tracking the new variants.




After it spread to several European countries as well as Japan and Canada, South Korea became the latest nation Monday to detect the virus variant, in three individuals from a London-based family who arrived in the country last week.
Five cases were identified in Spain’s southern Andalusia region. Finland health officials also said they had detected two cases of the UK variant and one of a new strain from South Africa – all three from people returning from abroad.
Britain reports record daily cases, topping 40,000
Itself hard hit by the strain, South Africa became the first African nation to log one million cases, official data showed Sunday.
Authorities there considered reimposing restrictions to battle the second wave of infections, with leaders worldwide facing similar dilemmas over unpopular and economically devastating lockdowns.
Most European countries began their vaccination campaigns over the weekend, boosting hopes of an end to the pandemic, especially in some of the hardest-hit parts of the continent.
But pharmaceutical company Pfizer warned of delays to some shipments of the vaccine to eight European nations from its factory.
High-profile leaders including US President-elect Joe Biden have been stepping forward to get the vaccination in a bid to fight scepticism over jabs developed in record time.
Spain, which said Monday that its coronavirus death toll has topped 50,000, plans to set up a registry of people who refuse to be vaccinated against the new coronavirus and share it with other European Union nations although it will not be made public, Health Minister Salvador Illa said.
Vaccination campaigns have also begun in China, Canada, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, and there was hope for one more successful vaccine on the horizon.
But there are still worries over vaccine hesitancy or outright refusal among the public – especially because of anti-vaccine misinformation campaigns.
Polls have shown many Europeans are unwilling to take the vaccine, which could impede efforts to beat the virus and reach widespread immunisation.


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Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus: almost 1.8 million dead, but future pandemics could be worse

A mural painting in Berlin, Germany sums up 2020. It’s been a year since the WHO first learned of the new virus spreading in China. Photo: AFP

TOPSHOT - Jos Hermans, 96, who is the first to receive a Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine gives a thumb up in front of journalists during a vaccination operation at the "Woonzorgcentrum Sint-Pieters" rest home on December 28, 2020 in Puurs, in Belgium's Flemish region, as the country starts its national vaccination campaign to fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus. - The vaccine doses were transported earlier from the University Hospital in Leuven to the residential care home, as the vaccination program starts with the most vulnerable. Belgium is the country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population with 165 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants. (Photo by Dirk WAEM / POOL / AFP)

Coronavirus: Britain reports record daily cases, topping 40,000

A pedestrian walks near the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England in London on Monday. Photo: AFP

Coronavirus: South Africa logs million cases as mutant strain spreads

South Africa’s tally includes almost 27,000 deaths. Photo: AP

Coronavirus: Russia admits to world’s third-worst death toll, saying fatalities are three times higher than reported

Policemen wearing face masks walk on snow-covered Red Square in downtown Moscow on Friday. Photo: AFP

A Russian medical worker administers a shot of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to an elderly man in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. Moscow has started offering a domestically developed coronavirus vaccine to people older than 60 after Russia's Health Ministry cleared it for use among the elderly. (Sergey Kiselev/Moscow News Agency photo via AP)

News

World

Coronavirus

Health & Medicine


Covid-19 has killed nearly 1.8 million people worldwide, out of over 80 million infected
WHO officials warn world remained far from prepared to ward off future pandemics



The novel coronavirus has had a devastating impact around the globe, but the World Health Organization warned that worse pandemics could lie ahead.


Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Coronavirus vaccine

World Health Organization (WHO)

Coronavirus: almost 1.8 million dead, but future pandemics could be worse

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Covid-19 has killed nearly 1.8 million people worldwide, out of over 80 million infected WHO officials warn world remained far from prepared to ward off future pandemics

Covid-19 has killed nearly 1.8 million people worldwide, out of over 80 million infected

WHO officials warn world remained far from prepared to ward off future pandemics