A number of countries have removed restrictions put in place in the wake of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Since its onset, the virus mutated a number of times, resulting in waves of infections which proved to be deadly. The most deadly wave was led by the Delta variant, which saw a high number of fatalities. Then came the Omicron variant, and the world again came to a halt.
However, in recent weeks, several scientists who studied the Omicron variant said that it does not lead to life-threatening infection. This led to calls for opening up from various corners of the world, and the governments order easing of restrictions.
But the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against taking this decision in haste.
“We do recognise this desire to open up, this desire to go back to normal. But if that desire to go back to completely normal, in that sense, is going to sustain this pandemic going forward than much longer it needs to be, then we really need to think about that,” Executive Director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme Mike Ryan said at a briefing on Thursday.
“I do think that in some situations, the political pressure now to open up and remove all restrictions of all kinds is so high that we may overshoot the runway and we may end up in a situation where - and again, I'm acknowledging uncertainty. I'm not sure that will happen and I'm not predicting that will happen but I'm a bit nervous right now that we're sort of just lifting everything,” he is heard saying in the video tweeted by the WHO from its official handle.
He said that if people get hit with another variant and all measures have been abandoned, it's going to be really hard to put anything back in place.
The WHO's Covid-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove, who was also present at the briefing, echoed similar sentiments.
“The problem is that we've seen too many countries sort of lift it all and then put it all back in, whereas other countries have really taken this slow, step-wise approach. And what we're seeing right now, we hear in the news countries that are lifting everything. In some countries, they are in a better position to be able to do that because they have high levels of vaccination coverage, high levels of population level immunity and they have the ability to adjust,” she said.
“But in many countries, it is ill-advised to lift everything all at once. We just need to have countries not do this all or nothing approach because it's confusing. And I don't blame anyone that's out there that is confused. But what is important for you to hear out there, which I hope is empowering, is that you have some control over this,” she added.
The remarks of the WHO officials came amid reopening orders given by several governments the world over. Portugal, Japan and Israel are the latest to drop Covid-19 restrictions. The Swiss government has lifted almost all the coronavirus restrictions, while Canada and Singapore have said they will lift travel restrictions soon.
In India, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan sent a letter to all the state governments and Union Territory administrators on Wednesday, asking them to review and amend or end additional Covid-19 restrictions, saying that the pandemic is showing a sustained declining trend in the country.