The Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, attended the meeting of CHOGM 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda.
The WHO chief, while addressing world leaders, appealed to them to provide their support to the Pandemic Accord.
“I was pleased to join the Foreign Ministers’ meeting at CHOGM2022. I asked them to support a Pandemic Accord, a new legally-binding international instrument, and to support closer cooperation & coordination between countries in the face of global threats”, underscored Dr Tedros.
At CHOGM 2022, voting was done to elect the Commonwealth Secretary-General. The results of the voting were on the side of Patricia Scotland, retaining her position for the second term.
World leaders were present at the summit organised from June 20 to 25.
Further lightening the vaccination drive at the summit, Dr Tedros notified that nearly 60% of the global population has now completed a primary course of vaccination against the contagious COVID-19, and over 70% of the people of Rwanda have now received at least one dose of vaccine.
“Transmission is increasing in many countries, including some of yours. This is despite the fact that testing and sequencing have dropped markedly around the world, which is blinding us to the evolution of the virus, And 40% of the world’s population remains unvaccinated. The risk of a new and more dangerous variant emerging remains very real. So although we have made great progress and have many reasons for optimism, the perception that the pandemic is over is understandable but misguided. Ending the acute phase of the pandemic must remain our collective priority”, the WHO chief then underscores.
The COVID-19 pandemic taught many lessons to the world, one of which is the centrality of health; Dr Tedros further highlights states the pandemic further taught that the health of an individual is always at risk, especially for low-income and small-island states.