The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on the world community to prepare for new pandemics.
According to him, the coronavirus pandemic that has spread in 2020 will not be the last and that epidemics are “a reality in life.” A year ago, the world did not know about COVID-19, but everything has changed since then.
“The impact of the coronavirus on the world has gone beyond the disease itself and has far-reaching implications for societies and economies,” he said in a video message on Saturday, December 26.
Ghebreyesus called for lessons to be learned from what happened, and stated the need for investments that will prevent emergencies in the future.
On the eve of the head of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, Hans Kluge, said that a new strain of COVID-19 was found in eight European countries. He suggested that the new strain is more common among young people, in contrast to the previous ones.
On December 9, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus strain identified in the south of Great Britain is more infectious. According to the politician, the initial signs of the spread of the new variant of the virus indicate that it is 70% more infectious than the original strain.
More than 35 countries, including Russia, have suspended flights with the UK.