Covid pandemic anniversary: WHO warned our fate was in our hands

After March 2020, the number of pandemic coronavirus infections rose from 118,000 to 118 million

A security guard stands outside the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market on January 24, where the coronavirus was detected in Wuhan. AFP

Personnel in biological hazard suits await passengers evacuated from Wuhan on January 29. AFP

A visitor wearing a protective face mask at the Arab Health conference held at Dubai World Trade Centre in Dubai on January 29, 2020. Pawan Singh / The National

A woman wears a plastic water bottle with a cutout to cover her face, as she walks on a footbridge in Hong Kong on January 31, 2020, as a preventative measure following a virus outbreak which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan. AFP

A shopper wearing a protective facemask sorts items in her trolley as she stands next to bare supermarket shelves, usually stocked with toilet paper and kitchen rolls, in Hong Kong on February 6, 2020. AFP

A drawing of the late ophthalmologist Li Wenliang with flower bouquets at the Houhu Branch of Wuhan Central Hospital in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province, February 7, 2020. Li, a doctor who was punished after raising the alarm about the new coronavirus, died on February 7 after being infected by the pathogen. AFP

Liu Yujia, the first person in the UAE to recover from coronavirus is congratulated by Consul General Li Xuhang of China and Dr Hussein Al Rand, assistant undersecretary of the Ministry of Health and Prevention, on February 9, 2020. Wam

Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi wipes the sweat off his face, during a press conference with the Islamic republic's government spokesman Ali Rabiei in the capital Tehran on February 24, 2020. Iran's deputy health minister confirmed on February 25, that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. AFP

A nurse wearing protective mask and gear comforts another as they change shifts on March 13, 2020 at the Cremona hospital, southeast of Milan, Lombardy, during the country's lockdown. AFP

People clap from balconies in a show of appreciation for health care workers in Mumbai, India, on March 22, 2020. AP Photo

Gonzaga Yiga, a 49-year-old community chairperson, appeals to residents through a speaker from the tallest building of the area in morning and evening, on how to curb the coronavirus, in Kampala, Uganda, on March 24, 2020. AFP

Sanitation workers from Tadweer in formation on the first day of the UAE cleaning campaign on March 27, 2020. Victor Besa / The National

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson on a screen as he remotely chairs the morning coronavirus meeting by video link, in Downing Street in central London, on March 28, 2020. The two men leading Britain's fight against the coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Health Secretary Matt Hancock, both announced they had tested positive. AFP

A South African policeman points his pump rifle to disperse a crowd of shoppers in Yeoville, Johannesburg, on March 28, 2020 while trying to enforce a safety distance outside a supermarket. AFP

Police inspector Rajesh Babu wearing a coronavirus-themed helmet speaks to a family on a motorbike at a checkpoint during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown in Chennai, India on March 28, 2020. AFP

The new screening drive through at Zayed Sports City, Abu Dhabi, on March 29, 2020. Chris Whiteoak / The National

An inhabitant of the residence Maison Blanche, composed of 226 mostly unsanitary dwellings, collects food offered by neighbours from his balcony, using a rope made with blankets, on March 31, 2020, in Marseille, southern France. AFP

Bodies are moved to a refrigeration truck serving as a temporary morgue at Wyckoff Hospital in the Borough of Brooklyn on April 6, 2020 in New York. AFP

Health workers cry during a memorial for their co-worker Esteban, a nurse who died, at the Severo Ochoa Hospital in Leganes in Leganes, Spain, on April 10, 2020. AP Photo

A Palestinian mother entertains her children with makeshift masks made of cabbage as she cooks in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 16, 2020. AFP

Health care workers stand in the street in counter-protest to hundreds of people who gathered at the State Capitol to demand the stay-at-home order be lifted in Denver, Colorado, US. April 19, 2020. Reuters

Members of the NYPD Honor Guard, wearing masks, prepare for the funeral of Traffic Section Commander Mohammed Chowdhury in New York, on April 22, 2020. AP Photo

A sign indicates that Bondi Beach is closed as a surfer arrives for the 7am opening in Sydney on April 28, 2020. AP Photo

The iconic Christ the Redeemer statue is lit up as if wearing a protective mask and with a slogan that reads in Portuguese: "Mask saves," in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 3, 2020. AP Photo

A medical worker takes a swab from a resident during home visits in Wuhan, the epicentre of China's coronavirus outbreak, in the central Hubei province, on May 14, 2020. AP

Guests watch the "Trolls World Tour" movie in the rain at the Four Brothers Drive In Theatre on May 15, 2020, in Amenia, NY. AP Photo

People are seen practising social distancing in white circles in Domino Park, on May 17, 2020 the in Brooklyn borough of New York City. AFP

View of the Intensive Care Unit treating coronavirus patients in the Gilberto Novaes Hospital in Manaus, Brazil, on May 20, 2020. AFP

Rectangles designed to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus by encouraging social distancing are drawn in a city-sanctioned homeless encampment at San Francisco's Civic Centre on May 21, 2020. AP Photo

Government health workers visit riverside communities of the municipality of Melgaco to test them for coronavirus infections in the Marajoara region, located in the southwest of the island of Marajo, at the mouth of the Amazon River in the state of Para, Brazil, on May 23, 2020. AFP

People attend a rave in boats of all sizes to give support to Berlin's world renowned dance clubs which were struggling due to the pandemic on the Landwehr canal on May 31, 2020 in Berlin's Kreuzberg district. AFP

Children run down a street past an informational mural warning people about the dangers of coronavirus in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya on Wednesday, June 3, 2020. AP Photo

A man on a balcony watches the second-division game between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete in Madrid, Spain, on June 10, 2020. AP Photo

Irish Paralympic hopeful Leo Hynes, who is legally blind, trains in his home-made training pool in his front garden at home in Tuam, Co Galway, west Ireland, on June 18, 2020. AFP

The Uceli Quartet perform for an audience made of plants during a concert created by Spanish artist Eugenio Ampudia and that would be later streamed to mark the reopening of the Liceu Grand Theatre in Barcelona on June 22, 2020. AFP

Agustina Canamero, 81, and Pascual Perez, 84, hug and kiss through a plastic film screen to avoid contracting the coronavirus at a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, on June 22, 2020. AP Photo

Romelia Navarro, 64, weeps while hugging her husband, Antonio, in his final moments in a Covid-19 unit at St Jude Medical Centre in Fullerton, California, on July 31, 2020. AP Photo

Muslim pilgrims circumambulating around the Kaaba at the centre of the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Makkah, on August 2, 2020. AFP

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro puts on a mask during the inauguration of the new General Abreu civic-military school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 14, 2020. AP Photo

The first day back at school at Gems Wellington Academy in Al Khail, Duba on August 30, 2020. Antonie Robertson / The National

An Iraqi family mourns around the coffin of a relative, who died of the coronavirus, during a reburial ceremony at the vast Wadi al-Salam cemetery in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on September 11, 2020. AFP

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed,, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the UAE, as he virtually addresses the general debate of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, on September 29, 2020, in New York. AFP

Medical workers celebrate as the last three patients are released from a field hospital at the National Stadium Mane Garrincha, after recuperating from Covid-19, in Brasilia, Brazil, on October 15, 2020. AP Photo

A woman speaks affectionately to a horse named "Tony" at the Maria Vieira Bazani nursing home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 22, 2020. AP Photo

People wear face masks while watching the marine life at Ripley's Aquarium of Canada in Toronto, on October 28, 2020. AP

A technician sprays disinfectant as mourners pray over the body of a person who died, at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery on the outskirts of the Iranian capital, Tehran on November 1, 2020. AP Photo

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Ruler of Dubai, receives the Sinopharm vaccine on November 3, 2020. Courtesy: Dubai Media Office

People dance at a nightclub, almost a year after the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on December 12, 2020. Reuters

Medical workers of the Covid-19 intensive care unit at the Santo Stefano hospital in Prato, near Florence, Tuscany, pose wearing their PPE with photos of themselves printed on it, on December 17, 2020 at the hospital in Prato. AFP

D-Day veteran and Chelsea Pensioner Bob James Sullivan, 98, a resident at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, is applauded by staff after receiving an injection of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine from Pippa Nightingale, Chief Nurse at the nearby Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on December 23, 2020. Chelsea Pensioners are all former soldiers of the British Army over the age of 65, who reside at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, founded by King Charles II in 1682, and wear a uniform which includes a scarlet coat. Getty Images

In the 12 months since the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic over the spread of Covid-19, its message has changed little: the control of its spread is in all of our hands and public measures are key to containing the threat.

A year later Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, told a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday that the pandemic he declared has turned our world upside-down.

Dr Tedros recalled that in 2018 he warned the world needed to build strong, resilient health systems to cope with emerging threats. He said the pandemic showed "the future is now".

We cannot say this loudly enough, or clearly enough, or often enough: all countries can still change the course of this pandemic

Covid-19 has since hit the world in waves of new outbreaks. Last week Dr Tedros said the number of infections was rising after a six-week period in which new infections dropped back.

The decrease came because the first window of light had opened, in the form of global vaccine introduction.

"In combination with proven public health measures, vaccines are now giving us hope for bringing the pandemic under control," Dr Tedros said in Abu Dhabi.

But relaxation of mask measures and the emergence of new variants can quickly reverse any improvements.

The dangers exposed a year ago remain a potent threat to hundreds of millions around the globe.

When the pandemic was declared last March there were 118,000 cases reported in 114 countries, but 90 per cent of cases were in only four countries.

Dr Tedros said that in two countries, China and South Korea, the epidemic was declining.

According to Worldometer, there have more than 118 million cases of Covid-19 and 2.6 million deaths as of Wednesday.

In declaring the pandemic on March 11, 2020, Dr Tedros said the escalation was not inevitable.

"We cannot say this loudly enough, or clearly enough, or often enough: all countries can still change the course of this pandemic," he told a briefing in Geneva.

"If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilise their people in the response, those with a handful of cases can prevent those cases becoming clusters, and those clusters becoming community transmission.

"Even those countries with community transmission or large clusters can turn the tide on this virus."

On Wednesday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric lamented the failure of world powers to heed those words and work together against the disease and associated issues.

The response was “unco-ordinated right from the start” and “sadly, that is ongoing today”, Mr Dujarric said.

The UN’s coronavirus response largely ground to a halt last year amid worsening US-China relations.

Former US president Donald Trump riled Beijing with the phrase “China virus” and by blaming the outbreak on a Chinese laboratory.

As death rates soared across the US and New York became the global centre of the pandemic in March, Mr Trump urged Beijing to come clean about the origins of the virus.

Bickering between American and Chinese diplomats meant the UN’s top decision-making body, the Security Council, took nearly three months to pass a resolution calling for global solidarity against the coronavirus, in April 2020.

Mr Trump announced in May that the US would leave the WHO and stop funding it, criticising it for its response to the pandemic and accusing its officials of acting in China’s favour.

Since taking office in January, US President Joe Biden has reversed the decision to leave the WHO.

Last month, the UN Security Council agreed on a resolution on vaccinating people in war zones, indicating calmer international relations under the Biden administration.

But the UN says rich countries ordered more vaccines than necessary while poorer countries lack enough doses even for frontline healthcare staff, while the UN-backed Covax vaccine sharing scheme is badly underfunded.

"We can't ignore the amazing scientific response and the rapidity in which many member states have been able to develop effective vaccines," Mr Dujarric said.
"The scientists have done their job. It is now for multilateralism in a sense to do its job and to find a more co-ordinated response to the rollout of the vaccine."

The UN is marking the anniversary on Thursday by launching  a campaign to give Covax the $2 billion it needs to offer vaccines to nearly 30 per cent of the populations of poor and middle-income countries by the end of the year.
"The only way we're really going to beat this and build back in a more sustainable way is with the right amount of investment," Mr Dujarric said.