The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about how Covid-19 is being handled worldwide. “Although we are not in a crisis, Covid-19 remains a threat to global health,” said Corona expert Maria Van Kerkhove in Geneva.
Too few people are being vaccinated and people are not taking enough protective measures. According to her, this includes wearing masks where many people come together in a small space, keeping people at home if they show signs of illness and ensuring that rooms are well ventilated. More must also be done to better examine and treat the long-term consequences of a corona infection.
According to Van Kerkhove, it is estimated that six percent of people who have a corona infection with symptoms experience long-term complications. These include, among other things, severe fatigue, but also neurological diseases and heart disease. Long-term complications are when symptoms last more than three months. The WHO is concerned about what consequences will still be visible in five or more years.
All of these are good reasons to avoid infections as much as possible. The vaccines protected against severe disease. In particular, older people over 75 and younger people with other illnesses or weak immune systems should receive a booster vaccination every six to twelve months.
The WHO criticizes the fact that testing is hardly carried out in many countries. The actual number of cases is likely to be far higher than the reported cases. Wastewater studies suggested that the virus was circulating 2 to 19 times as much as reported numbers suggested. By the end of 2023, around seven million deaths from Covid-19 had been reported to the WHO. The true number is likely to be at least three times as high as Van Kerkhove said.
