WHO urges people to follow COVID-19 safety measures even after vaccine rollout

The World Health Organization, during a media briefing on December 4, urged people to follow the safety measures even after the vaccine is rolled out as it will not put an end to the deadly virus. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the progress in vaccines gives people a lift ‘and we can now start to see the light at the end of the tunnel’. He also said that the organization is worried about the growing perception of people about how the pandemic is over as this can turn out to be harmful.

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“The truth is that at present, many places are witnessing very high transmission of the COVID19 virus, which is putting enormous pressure on hospitals, intensive care units and health workers. As previously seen, as these measures are lifted, it’s important that people should continue to follow national and local measures to ensure that cases do not rebound”, said Tedros during the briefing. He urged people to keep following the social distancing measures even after the vaccine is rolled out. This will ensure ‘safety’. 

Safety measures to be followed 

The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has infected over 65 million people worldwide with the global death toll at 1,524,462. As per the John Hopkins coronavirus resource centre, the United States has reported a total of 14,772,535 positive virus cases and has a death toll of 285,550.The US currently has the highest number of reported cases in the world, making it the epicentre of the deadly virus.

Read: WHO Stays Resolute Over COVID-19 Origin Amid China's Claims: 'Will Start Study From Wuhan'

Recently, Pfizer Inc’s CEO Albert Bourla has said that the company is “not certain” if its COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed in collaboration with German drugmaker BioNTech SE prevented the transmission of the novel coronavirus. This comes just days after the UK became the world’s first country to give formal authorisation to Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine for mass rollout. Also, Bahrain on December 5 became the second nation in the world to grant an emergency-use authorisation for the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer. However, the country did not reveal information about the number of vaccines that it had purchased. Pfizer told the Associated Press that the details of its sales agreement with Bahrain, including the “timing of delivery and the volume of doses,” was confidential and declined to comment.

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Also Read: WHO Welcomes India's Role In Global Health, Tedros Lauds PM Modi's Vaccine Commitment

(Image Credits: AP)