AFP, Geneva

The number of new coronavirus infections globally rose last week for the first time in seven weeks, as the World Health Organization said It is unrealistic to think the world will be done with the Covid-19 pandemic by the end of the year.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said it might however be possible to take the tragedy out of the coronavirus crisis by reducing hospitalisations and deaths. But the virus remains in control, he added, especially given that global new case numbers increased last week after six 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.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said new case numbers rose last week in Europe, the Americas, southeast Asia and the eastern Mediterranean mainly due to people letting down their guard.

“Vaccines will help to save lives, but if countries rely solely on vaccines, they’re making a mistake. Basic public health measures remain the foundation of the response,” he added.

He welcomed Monday’s first injections of doses delivered through the Covax, which were administered in Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

Meanwhile, official data showed that the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines have been “highly effective” in reducing infections and severe illness among elderly people in Britain.

In the over 80s, a single dose of either vaccine is more than 80 percent effective at preventing hospitalisation around three to four weeks after the jab, according to a Public Health England real-world study that has gathered data since January.