WHO Rep in Serbia: COVID-19 Pandemic Not yet Nearing End  

Fabio Scano (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)

The World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Serbia, Fabio Scano, on March 1 said that we were not yet nearing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and that it could not be precisely said how dangerous future variants of coronavirus would be.

“Low vaccination take ideally enables spread of new variants and we cannot know how dangerous those new variants will be,” Scano told state public broadcaster RTS. He stressed that the best way was higher immunization uptake, which, according to him, would reduce infection rates.

“The countries with high vaccination rates can consider a phase after this situation, but not in those with low immunization rates. It is important to achieve 70 percent coverage with vaccines,” Scano noted.

As WHO had selected Serbia as one the countries for sharing messenger RNK vaccine technology, Scano stressed that Serbia now had huge responsibility, but added that he was not expecting vaccine production to be launched in 2022. He specified that production would not only involve COVID-19 vaccines, but also shots for other diseases.