WHO hopes coronavirus can be over in two years: Tedros
“Our situation now with more technology, of course with more connectiveness, the virus has a better chance of spreading, it can move fast,” says Tedros
August 21, 2020
The World Health Organization hopes the coronavirus crisis can be over in less than two years, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.
The Spanish flu that hit in 1918 took two years to end, he said.
“Our situation now with more technology, of course with more connectiveness, the virus has a better chance of spreading, it can move fast,” he said.
“At the same time we have the technology and knowledge to stop it.”
Meanwhile, WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said that much more research is needed on the impact of mutations in the coronavirus.
“A special working group has been formed to identify mutations ... and we’re looking at how we can better understand what the mutation means and how they behave,” she told a briefing in Geneva.
WHO's Dr Mike Ryan said that the the scale of the coronavirus pandemic in Mexico is “under-represented” and “under-recognised” and testing is limited.
He told the briefing that testing in Mexico worked out at about three people per 100,000, compared with about 150 tests per 100,000 people in the United States.
