Local authorities are not yet trusting the optimistic words of the World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who on Wednesday announced that the end of the Covid-19 pandemic “is in sight.”
Local authorities said on the topic yesterday that they prefer to wait and keep observing the development of the pandemic as well as following the guidelines coming from both the WHO and China’s central government on the matter.
When questioned on the matter, the acting division head for health promotion at Health Bureau (SSM), Valerie Wong, said that the SSM and the government are “observing and evaluating constantly on the matter, as well as following the recommendations from the WHO regarding the pandemic as well as mainland authorities,” adding also that the measures decided upon for Macau are “related to our [Macau’s] reality and according to our plan of tackling the pandemic.”
On Wednesday, during a virtual press conference, the WHO director-general said that the world has never been in a better position to end the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are not there yet. But the end is in sight,” the official remarked, based on the figures of the weekly reported deaths caused by the disease, which are the lowest since March 2020.
It is estimated that over the course of almost three years the disease and health complications resulting from Covid-19 infections have caused the death of almost 6.5 million people and infected over 606 million.
Nonetheless, the optimistic words of Tedros did not follow any announcement of less restrictive measures, with the director-general advising the governments to “take a hard look at their policies and strengthen them for Covid-19 and future viruses,” while urging them to vaccinate 100% of their high-risk groups and keep testing for the virus.
“Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap the rewards of all our hard work,” Tedros reaffirmed.
Omicron vaccines still under evaluation
To an inquiry from the media on the possibility of Macau acquiring a new type of vaccine, namely one specially designed for the Omicron variant of the virus that has been rolled out already in several countries by two different manufacturers, health authorities said that they are still analyzing the data from the use of these vaccines to evaluate whether these vaccines are or are not adequate for Macau.
On the matter, Wong said, “After the evaluation, if we find that these are adequate, we can promote the necessary changes to our vaccination program.”
