2021 will be a 'far more deadly' year of COVID-19: WHO

The latest surge of COVID-19 was witnessed in Japan

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS WHO officials warned that 2021 will be a "far more deadly" year of COVID-19, as cases have begun to surge across the globe. "We are on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first," said the World Health Organisation's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, according to news agency AFP.

The latest casualty was Japan. The country had further expanded a coronavirus state of emergency from six areas, including Tokyo, to nine, as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga repeated his determination to hold the Olympics in just over two months. Japan has been struggling to slow infections ahead of the games. The three additions are Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, where the Olympic marathon will be held, and Hiroshima and Okayama in western Japan. Infections are escalating extremely rapidly in populated areas, Suga said. "As new variants continue to spread, we judged that now is a very important time to stop the further spread of infections."

'COVID-19 spread a failure of global leadership'

Countries with the poorest results in addressing COVID-19 had uncoordinated approaches that devalued science, denied the potential impact of the pandemic, delayed comprehensive action, and allowed distrust to undermine efforts, a panel of independent experts said on Wednesday. In a report released in Geneva, the panel, which reviewed the World Health Organisation's response to the deadly coronavirus pandemic, also said the denial of scientific evidence was compounded by a failure of leadership to take responsibility or develop coherent strategies aimed at preventing community transmission.

"Countries with the poorest results in addressing COVID-19 had uncoordinated approaches that devalued science, denied the potential impact of the pandemic, delayed comprehensive action, and allowed distrust to undermine efforts," it said. "Leaders who appeared sceptical or dismissive of emerging scientific evidence eroded public trust, cooperation and compliance with public health interventions," the report said.