The World Health Organization chief hailed Monday “encouraging” news about Covid-19 vaccines but expressed concern about surging cases in many countries and insisted that complacency was not an option.
“We continue to receive encouraging news about COVID-19 vaccines and remain cautiously optimistic about the potential for new tools to start to arrive in the coming months,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press briefing.
But he added: “This is no time for complacency.” His comments came as global hopes of overcoming the coronavirus pandemic were boosted after a second candidate vaccine was found to be nearly 95 percent effective in an ongoing trial.The news from the US biotech firm Moderna brought much-needed optimism to a world facing surging infections and grueling new restrictions.
It came after similar results were announced last week for a vaccine candidate developed by pharma giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.But WHO has warned that widespread availability of any vaccine remains a long way off, even as Covid-19 cases and deaths surge in many parts of the world.
“This is a dangerous virus, which can attack every system in the body,” said Tedros.“Those countries that are letting the virus run unchecked are playing with fire.”
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