At the first press conference in 2022, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the World Health Organization, recalls that in recent weeks “records in the number of new cases” have been beaten, but that “we do not even know part of the real total of the number of new cases diaries ”considering the difficulty of many countries to test, the self-tests carried out and the breaks in testing typical of the festive season.

Warns the WHO so that Omicron – even if it is less severe – “is not considered as mild”. “Like the other variants, it is causing hospitalizations and deaths around the world, it is very fast and is causing the disruption of health services”, warns the WHO director who calls for the continued use of masks, to maintain a distance social and to avoid agglomerations and to ventilate the interior spaces whenever possible.

The low rate of vaccination worldwide has contributed, according to the WHO leader, to the emergence of yet another variant, which is spreading at a rate never seen before: “With the low vaccination rates, we created the perfect conditions for new variants to emerge ”

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says it is “Useless to vaccinate with the fourth dose” when there are countries with a vaccination rate close to zero.

“There are countries vaccinating citizens for the fourth time, while others still have not managed to give the first dose to health workers, the most vulnerable. It is useless to give the fourth dose while other countries still do not provide the vaccine”, stresses the official.

For Thedros Ghebreyesus, a key word to fight Covid-19 in 2022 has to be “fairness”: “equity, equity, equity”, he appealed.