WHO Chief Says World at Perilous Point in COVID-19 Pandemic
Voice of America
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Wednesday that the world was at a perilous point in the COVID-19 pandemic, as fast-moving variants continued to spread because of an uneven global vaccination effort.
From the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Tedros said that some countries with high vaccination rates were making plans to roll out booster shots in coming months and were dropping public health social distancing measures and relaxing as though the pandemic were already over. But the WHO chief said that because of what he called a “shocking inequity in vaccination,” and highly contagious variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, far too many countries in every region of the world were seeing spikes in cases and hospitalizations. He said that had led to an acute shortage of oxygen and treatments and was driving a wave of death in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America.In this image provided by Giant Screen Films, Liam Fisher, Kaiden Madsen and Jessin Fisher pose for a celebratory photo on the day their fossil find was determined to be a juvenile T. rex, in North Dakota. In this photo provided by Giant Screen Films, Jessin Fisher digs for fossils on public lands near his home in Marmath, N.D. (Sam Fisher/Giant Screen Films via AP) The Hell Creek badlands of southwestern North Dakota, U.S., where a fossil of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex was discovered, is seen in this July 2016 handout photo. (Erik Freeman/Handout via Reuters)
This image released by Sony Pictures shows characters Jon, voiced by Nicholas Hoult, clockwise from left, Vic, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, and Garfield, voiced by Chris Pratt, in a scene from the animated film "The Garfield Movie." This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows a scene from "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga."
Engineer Guillermo D. Christy photographs a steel pillar filled with concrete that was installed inside the Aktun Tuyul cave system to support the Maya Train track on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 3, 2024. A passenger looks at the passing jungle landscape while traveling on the Maya Train from Cancun to Valladolid, Mexico, March 6, 2024. When it's completed, the high-speed Maya Train will wind around Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula. A line of the Mayan Train is built using material dug out from the nearby tropical forest near Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 1, 2024. When it's completed, the high-speed Maya Train will wind around Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula. Workers build a Maya Train railway track near Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 10, 2024. Engineer Guillermo D. Christy shows his hand stained with rust after touching a steel pillar in the Aktun Tuyul cave system. Construction of the Maya Train is rapidly destroying much of the hidden underground world of caverns and sinkhole lakes. A Mayan Train worker waits for passengers to board in Cancun, Mexico, March 6, 2024. ight shines through a hole made by massive metal drills to introduce a steel pillar filled with concrete that will be used to support a part of the Maya Train track, inside the Aktun Tuyul cave system on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, March 3, 2024. A hat sits on a Maya Train passenger seat en route to Valladolid, Mexico, Wednesday, March 6, 2024.
A thermometer showing 29° C (84.2° F), is seen hanging from a wall in the shadow, during the first heat alert of the year, on a hot spring day, in a street in Ronda, Spain, May 30, 2024. A man carries a child with its head covered with a towel to protect it from the heat in Jammu, India, June 2, 2024. A street is flooded by the river Schmutter, following heavy rainfalls in Fischach, near Augsburg, Germany, June 1, 2024.