WHO: Many countries are only now facing the epidemic

(Patria) - The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that the world must learn to live with the coronavirus and fight the infection with the means it possesses, despite efforts to develop a vaccine at record speed.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made his remarks at a high-level committee meeting, six months after a global pandemic was declared. He said that many scientific questions have been answered since the virus first appeared, but many remain unanswered.

Before COVID-19, pandemics were also declared due to the spread of swine flu, Zika, and Ebola.

"Early results from serological studies provide a consistent picture: most people remain susceptible to this virus, even in areas that have experienced severe outbreaks," Tedros explained.

He said that many countries that believed they had passed the worst are now facing a new epidemic, and those less affected in the earliest weeks are now recording an increase in the number of infected and deaths.

"While vaccine development is progressing at record speed, we must learn to live with this virus, and we must fight it with the means at our disposal," Tedros said.