New York: The World Health Organization has warned that vaccines will be no magic bullet for the coronavirus crisis as nations gear up for a massive rollout to tackle surging infections.
“Vaccines do not equal zero Covid,” said WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan, adding that not everyone will be able to receive it early next year.
“Vaccination will add a major, major, powerful tool to the tool kit that we have. But by themselves, they will not do the job.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said progress on vaccines signalled “light at the end of the tunnel.”
But he cautioned against the “growing perception that the pandemic is over” with the virus still spreading fast, putting enormous pressure on hospitals and health care workers. Tedros also said in the meeting that we need to focus on the global system for the preparations. The WHO Commission, established in September, is reviewing international health regulations. The WHO is working with several countries to launch a pilot program, in which all countries have agreed to conduct regular and transparent reviews of their health preparedness.
The WHO says 51 candidate vaccines are currently being tested on humans, with 13 reaching final-stage mass testing.
Britain on Wednesday became the first Western country to approve an inoculation, from Pfizer-BioNTech, for general use.
The United States is expected to give a green light later this month.
With the imminent arrival of vaccines that need storage at ultra-low temperatures, US companies are preparing for a massive logistical effort to aid their distribution.
Firms specializing in insulating containers are on a war footing after Pfizer and BioNTech said their vaccine needs to be stored at -94 degrees Fahrenheit (-70 Celsius).
The United States clocked a record number of Covid-19 cases for a second day in a row, with the country. US President-elect Joe Biden has called it a “dark winter”.
America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday recommended “universal face mask use” indoors and Biden said he would scale down his January inauguration ceremony to mitigate the virus risk.
British medical chiefs said the arrival of a vaccine should see deaths reduce significantly by early next year but warned social mixing over Christmas could cause another spike before then.
India detected 36,652 new Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours ending 8 am Saturday taking the country’s overall tally to over 96 lakh. Out of the total cases, active cases have further dropped to 4.09 lakh and 90,58,822 people have recovered so far with almost 42,500 recoveries reported in the last 24 hours. With 512 new deaths, the toll mounted to 1,39,700.
Kerala and Maharashtra continue to be the biggest contributors, reporting more than 5,000 new cases on Friday. Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of both active cases and fatalities.
Prime Minister announced earlier in the day that three vaccines are in trial stage in India and when ready, healthcare and frontline workers, and elderly persons with serious ailments will be given priority in vaccination. Speaking on the vaccine challenges and the way forward, PM Modi also said that deliberations are on with the states about the dissemination and pricing of the vaccine.