“Last week saw the lowest number of reported weekly cases since October”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) told journalists at a regular press briefing in Geneva. 

Noting a nearly 50 per cent drop this year, he stressed that “how we respond to this trend” is what matters now.

While acknowledging that there is more reason for hope of bringing the pandemic under control, the WHO chief warned, “the fire is not out, but we have reduced its size”. 

WHO gave the green light for two versions of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to be rolled out globally under an emergency listing, which assesses and assures the quality, safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and is also a distribution prerequisite under the UN-led vaccine initiative COVAX.

One of the vaccines was produced by SKBio in Korea, the other by the Serum Institute of India.

“We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of vaccines”, said Tedros.

However, he reiterated the need to scale-up production along with his call for vaccine developers to send their dossiers to WHO for review when they submit them to regulators in high-income countries.

Ensuring the rapid and equitable rollout of vaccines globally is essential for saving lives, stabilizing health systems, protecting livelihoods and steadying economies, according to the WHO chief.

The WHO chief looked forward to an upcoming meeting of the G7 industrialized countries on Friday to discuss vaccine equity.

The solution is to fight misinformation, delete false or misleading statements, listen to concerns and questions and provide answers with good information, Tedros upheld.

Source: UN News.