Coronavirus pandemic could be over within 2 years – WHO head

The head of the World Health Organization says he hopes the coronavirus pandemic will end in less than two years – less time than it took to stop the 1918 Spanish flu.

Speaking Friday at his regular briefing in Geneva, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it is easier for a virus to spread today than 100 years ago because “we are more connected now.” However, he said, “at the same time, we have also the technology to stop it and the knowledge to stop it.”

“So we have a disadvantage of globalization, closeness, connectedness but an advantage of better technology,” Tedros said.

He said the key to stopping the virus is for countries around the world to “pool our efforts.”

More than 22.75 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally since it was first identified in China last year and 794,814 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

But the deadliest pandemic in modern history, Spanish flu, killed as many as 50 million people and infected nearly 500 million around the world between February 1918 and April 2020.

(VOA)

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