World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday (April 13) said that coronavirus COVID-19 is 10 times more deadly than swine flu, which wreaked havoc across the world in 2009. The WHO chief added that only a vaccine can fully halt transmission of coronavirus.
Addressing a virtual briefing from Geneva, Ghebreyesus noted that the WHO was closely monitoring the coronavirus pandemic, which has has now killed over 115,000 people and infected over 1.8 million.
"We know that Covid-19 spreads fast, and we know that it is deadly, 10 times deadlier than the 2009 flu pandemic," he said.
According to WHO, 18,500 people died of "swine flu", or H1N1, in 2009, but it was estimated but some other forms that the death toll due to swine flu was between 151,700 and 575,400.
It may be recalled that swine flu outbreak was declared a pandemic in June 2009 and was considered over by August 2010. The WHO chief said that vaccines for swine flu was developed quickly but the Western nations and the WHO were criticised for overreacting in their response to control swine flu.
Referring to COVID-19 pandemic, Ghebreyesus said that coronavirus cases are doubling every three to four days in some countries, but added that if countries were committed to "early case-finding, testing, isolating (and) caring for every case and tracing every contact" they could succeed in curbing the outbreak.
The WHO chief that over 50% population of the world is currently staying indoors to curb the spread of coronavirus, but "our global connectedness means the risk of re-introduction and resurgence of the disease will continue".
He asserted that while COVID-19 had spread rapidly, "it decelerates much more slowly."
"In other words, the way down is much slower than the way up," he said, stressing that "control measures must be lifted slowly, and with control. It cannot happen all at once.Control measures can only be lifted if the right public health measures are in place, including significant capacity for contact tracing," said the WHO chief.
The WHO chief, however, admitted that despite all the efforts, the "development and delivery of a safe and effective vaccine will be needed to fully interrupt transmission".
