Coronavirus: WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hopes COVID-19 will end in two years

London: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organisation chief said that he hopes the world can end the coronavirus pandemic in less than two years.

While answering questions of reporters in Geneva about the comparison between the last century's Spanish flu, and the novel coronavirus, the WHO chief said, "We hope to finish this pandemic before less than two years."

Ghebreyesus also said that COVID-19 is a once-in-a-century health crisis. He added that the Spanish flu lasted from February 1918 to April 1920.

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He then said that it took two years for the Spanish flu to stop. He added, "the present situation  with more technology and of course we have a disadvantage of globalization, closeness, connectedness but an advantage of better technology, so we hope to finish this pandemic in less than two years," he said.

He said that no country can just ride this out until we have a vaccine.

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"A vaccine will be a vital tool, and we hope that we will have one as soon as possible. But there's no guarantee that we will, and even if we do have a vaccine, it won't end the pandemic on its own."

He said the people need to learn to control and manage the virus using the tools they have "and to make the adjustments to our daily lives that are needed to keep ourselves and each other safe."

• COVID-19
• Coronavirus
• Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
• WHO chief
• coronavirus pandemic