A vaccine alone will not be able to stop the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic – this requires a whole range of measures. I recalled the inability of vaccination to completely defeat the disease in my Twitter chapter World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adan Ghebreyesus.
“From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew that a vaccine would be needed to control the pandemic. But it is important to understand that it will complement the rest of the tools, not replace them,” Gebreyesus wrote. He said that it is necessary to continue monitoring, testing, isolating the infected and treating them, tracing contacts and quarantining, involving communities and individuals in the fight against the spread of the disease.
The head of WHO also recalled that the first batches of vaccines will be limited: the first to receive them are medical workers, older people and other risk groups. This, he said, would lower mortality and help health systems better adapt to the situation, but the virus would still pose a threat.
Last week, WHO recorded an all-time record daily increase in the number of cases : according to the organization, on November 13, 628 thousand new cases were detected worldwide.