Hope to finish this pandemic before less than two years: WHO chief Tedros

World Health Organization(WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today that the "pandemic is a reminder that health and the economy are inseparable."

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Tedros said that corruption of personal protective equipment (PPE) in South Africa amounted to "murder", "Any type of corruption is unacceptable, he said, adding," However, corruption related to PPE... for me it's actually murder. Because if health workers work without PPE, we're risking their lives. And that also risk the lives of the people they serve."

"So it's criminal and it's murder and it has to stop." South Africa has been hit by a huge corruption scandal involving masks and PPE which have been allegedly been stolen with health workers deprived of basic essentials to fight the virus.

Tedros said, "so-called lockdowns enabled many countries to suppress transmission and take the pressure off their health systems. But lockdowns are not a long-term solution for any country."

"Every person, family, community and nation must make their own decisions, based on the level of risk where they live," Tedros asserted.

"We hope to finish this pandemic before less than two years," Tedros said. Tedros said compared to 1918 during the time of the Spanish flu the world is at a disadvantage due to its "globalisation, closeness, connectedness" allowing the virus to spread rapidly but said that by "utilising the available tools to the maximum and hoping that we can have additional tools like vaccines, I think we can finish it in a shorter time than the 1918 flu."