Covid-19 Unlikely To Go By The End Of Year: WHO

UAE reports 2,526 cases, 17 deaths; Abu Dhabi shuts eatery for violation; Oman orders partial commercial shutdown from March 4th to 20th; world’s first Covax vaccine injected; Modi gets jab; UK hunts for carrier of Brazil virus strain.

It is unrealistic to think that the world will be done with the COVID-19 pandemic by the end of the year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

The WHO’s emergency director Michael Ryan said it might be possible to take the sting of tragedy out of the coronavirus crisis by reducing hospitalizations and deaths.

But the virus remains very much in control, he added, especially given that global new case numbers increased this week after seven consecutive weeks of decline.

“It will be very premature and I think unrealistic to think that we’re going to finish with this virus by the end of the year,” Ryan told journalists.

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention recorded 2,526 new coronavirus cases on Monday. In addition to the new cases, 1,107 individuals have recovered and 17 people passed away.

The Health Ministry has also announced that 7,956 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were given in the past 24 hours. The total number of doses provided up to Monday stands at 6,028,417 with a rate of vaccine distribution of 60.95 doses per 100 people.