Says WHO’s top emergencies expert as world fights virus

Reuters, Geneva

Parts of the world are starting to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic and to cautiously resume some sort of normal life, but the new coronavirus will pose significant risks until vaccines are developed, the WHO’s top emergencies expert said on Sunday.

Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergencies programme, said while many countries are still in the eye of the storm, others were beginning to show it is possible to contain the disease to some extent.

“In that sense, there’s hope,” Ryan told Reuters in an online interview from Geneva.

“At a global level the situation is still very, very serious but the pattern of the disease and the trajectory of the virus is very different in different parts of the world right now,” he said.

“What we’re learning is that it is possible to get this disease under control and it is possible to begin resuming normal economic and social life, with a new way of having to do that, and with extreme caution and vigilance.”