The head of the World Health Organization said on Saturday that the world could be able to rein in the pandemic in less than two years.
Talking in Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the globalization has been disadvantageous in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, as it aided its rapid spread around the globe. But he said that we have the advantage of better technology, so we “hope to finish this pandemic before less than two years.”
To make his point clearer, Ghebreyesus drew a comparison between the 1918 Spanish Flu — which killed from 50-100 million people, depending on the estimates — and the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the influenza pandemic of 1918 had taken 2 years to finish. With all the advanced technology at our disposal, we should be able to rein in the Covid-19 pandemic “in a shorter time”, he said.
World Health Organization, in fresh guidelines developed with the help of UNICEF, said that children above the age of 12 should wear masks with the same frequency and in the same situations as adults to limit the spread of the coronavirus. It said that children should wear “a mask under the same conditions as adults, in particular when they cannot guarantee at least a one-metre distance from others and there is widespread transmission in the area.”
WHO’s optimistic announcement came at a point when the coronavirus is still raging across the globe. The global infection tally has reached an astounding 23 million hallmark, whereas the death toll is hovering above 800,000. Per day cases are at 300,000. With 5.8 million cases, the United States is still the hardest hit, followed by Brazil, 3.5 million, and India, 3 million.