The statements of the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, that the world is close to eliminating the emerging corona virus reflect the extent of the disease’s recent decline, and at the same time raise questions, whether we are close to returning to our normal life that we were before the emergence of The virus first appeared in December of 2019.
“Last week, the number of weekly deaths from Covid-19 fell to its lowest level since March 2020. We have never been in a better position than we are now to eradicate the pandemic,” the director of the United Nations organization said during a press conference on Wednesday.
“We haven’t realized it yet, but the end is at hand,” he said.
In a telephone interview with Al-Hurra website, Dr. Imad Barakat, Professor of Internal Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine at Ain Shams University, considered that these statements contain a large part of truth, as the number of cases decreased after it was at a large rate.
And after cases were coming to him almost daily in his clinic, they are now rare, and a month may pass without any positive cases passing by, and this means that the rate is declining, “and at some point it will be over.” According to the doctor.
According to the latest epidemiological report published by the World Health Organization, the number of infections decreased by 12 percent during the week of August 29 to September 4, compared to the previous week, reaching about 4.2 million new infections.
On September 4, the organization counted a total of more than 600 million officially confirmed infections, while the recorded deaths amounted to 6.4 million deaths.
Dr. Assem Al-Esawy, professor of chest diseases, said, for his part, in a statement to Al-Hurra website that the virus “will not end and cases will continue to exist, but we will live with it, but the rates that we were reaching before, from a scientific point of view, we should not reach them again.” “.
He added, “There will be cases, but their severity is less. There are difficult cases, but there are also many people who have acquired immunity, but like any infection, the infection may come to them and the virus will reach the lungs, and cause health problems, but it is not as difficult as it was before.” .
The doctor adds: “There is no virus that ends completely, but a virus that generates immunity. We will coexist with the virus through herd immunity, and even the mutations that have occurred have become much less severe than previous mutations, and the cases that need hospitals are becoming very few.”
Despite these optimistic statements, Tedros warned not to “stop fighting the virus,” likening the world as if “a person who runs a marathon and does not stop when he sees the finish line.” Running faster, with all the energy he has left. we, also”.
“We can all see the finish line going to win but it would really be the worst time to stop running.”
“If we do not seize this opportunity, we risk seeing more mutations, more deaths, more disruptions and more uncertainty,” he said, calling for “to seize this opportunity.”
Doctor Imad Barakat agrees with this statement, calling for the need to continue to follow preventive measures, because “it is not possible to prevent 100 percent of the virus through vaccinations.”
Although the practices of wearing masks in public places and disinfecting hands are no longer as common as before, the doctor advised Barakat to reduce gatherings as much as possible and prevent any conditions that help spread the disease.
And the doctor, Assem Al-Issawi, advised the wearing of masks, especially by groups that did not receive vaccinations or had immune diseases.
He pointed to positive indicators that predict the future of the pandemic, which is that the current summer was “better” than the previous summer in terms of a somewhat reduced number of cases, and said that “if we can pass this winter in peace, we will return to our almost normal life.”