A vaccine on its own will not be enough to stop the corona pandemic. “A vaccine will not replace the other resources we have,” said World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The pandemic is still raging after the virus emerged at the beginning of this year, with 54 million infections and more than 1.3 million deaths worldwide.
According to the WHO, 660,905 new cases of the coronavirus were reported to the UN health organization on Saturday, setting a new record. That number, and the 645,410 cases recorded on Friday, surpassed the previous daily record of 614,013 on Nov. 7.
Tedros said supplies of the vaccine would be limited initially, with “health workers, the elderly and other at-risk groups being prioritized. That will hopefully reduce deaths and enable health systems to cope.”
But he warned: “Then the virus still has a lot of room to manoeuvre. Monitoring will have to continue, people still have to be tested, isolated and cared for, contacts still have to be traced.”