Alert! COVID-19 second wave- EVEN MORE SEVERE

New Delhi, December 30: Are you scared of the upcoming COVID-19 like pandemic? Well, are you ready for the second wave of spread? The World Health Origanisation marking the first anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, yesterday sent a grim message that the globe should brace for even more severe infection spread in the future.

 

 

"Coronavirus is not necessarily the big one, and that there is a real chance of another, more serious pandemic spreading across the world. UN agency is learning new things about the virus every day, including the ability of new variants to spread, make people sick, or have a potential impact on available tests, treatments or vaccines", said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

 

Tedros singled out work taking place in the UK and South Africa, where scientists are carrying out epidemiologic and laboratory studies, which will guide the agency’s next steps. WHO was first alerted to this pandemic on December 31 last year, when Chinese officials reported they were investigating a cluster of viral pneumonia in Wuhan.

 

 

 

Since then, COVID-19 has become the deadliest disease in the world, outstripping the big three: malaria, tuberculosis and HIV. While this trio kills between 500,000 and 1.5 million people each per year, COVID-19 has caused more than 1.7 million deaths and is now officially out of control in several countries, from the US to South Africa.

 

With more than 81 million COVID-19 cases diagnosed worldwide and millions remaining undiagnosed, WHO described this pandemic in an end-of-year report as a wake-up call. “This may come as a shock to people … but this is not necessarily the big one,” said Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO's health emergencies program. While much had been learnt, he said the world needed to get ready for something that may even be more severe in future.