Qatar - Vaccination, public health steps may stem wave of Covid infections globally

(MENAFN- Gulf Times)

The COVID-19 pandemic is not an obvious cause for optimism, but the progress of vaccination programmes around the world is giving people some hope that things will improve in 2022.
Despite the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid-19, people around the world are feeling“surprisingly positive” about the New Year, reveals a global survey by researcher Ipsos.
Over 75% of people around the world think 2022 will be a better year than 2021, reveals a survey by researcher Ipsos, whose details have been published by the World Economic Forum.
Ipsos asked over 22,000 adults in some 33 countries to give their personal predictions for 2022. 
Although concerns persist about rising prices and the environment, most people felt things would be better in the New Year.
Although people around the world expect extreme weather events caused by global warming to intensify in 2022, especially in those European countries badly affected by flooding in 2021, there was more optimism about the readiness of people to take action to halt it.
Optimism about the state of the global economy is picking up, the Ipsos survey has shown. People have greater expectations for stock market stability in 2022 than they did in 2021.
Although three quarters of people around the world expect prices in their countries to rise faster than incomes, over two fifths (42%) think a stock market crash is unlikely.
That being said, the rapid emergence of the Omicron variant is a stark reminder of the ongoing threat posed by the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic and reinforces the critical need to achieve high levels of immunisation coverage in all countries, including in highly vulnerable populations, in a timely manner. 
Although the world is expected to have enough Covid-19 vaccine doses by mid-2022 to vaccinate 70% of the world's population with three doses, uncertainties abound, says the World Health Organisation.
These include the possible need for variant-specific vaccines, changes to vaccination policies, country preference for some products over others, the programmatic complexity of managing multiple products, and the need for better intelligence on country-level planning and execution.
The uncertainty of the required vaccination response to the Omicron variant will necessitate ongoing attention to achieving fairness and equity while requiring flexibility in vaccine allocation and supply management.
Therefore, greater attention must be paid to who is being immunised, WHO says.
Equity must remain the overarching principle, and priority must be given in all countries to ensuring that the primary series is offered first and foremost to all adults and adolescents, in the step-wise manner recommended by the WHO, given that a high proportion of these populations still require primary immunisation.
Some 98 countries have not vaccinated 40% of their population. An estimated 1.4bn eligible people need to be urgently immunised, many of whom are in the highest risk groups for death and serious illness. These gaps have been most pronounced in low-and lower-middle income countries.
New Covid-19 variants are moving ever so quickly. Therefore, in addition to vaccination, public health social measures are also needed to stem the wave of infections globally.

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