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Waive patents to fight virus: WHO chief

Emma Frage and Stephanie NebehayAAP
A WHO expert says countries may well face third and fourth coronavirus surges.
Camera IconA WHO expert says countries may well face third and fourth coronavirus surges.

The head of the World Health Organisation says that now is the time for the waiving of patents on the tools poorer countries need to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was addressing a briefing on Friday before next week's World Trade Organisation meeting on issue.

"One of our main priorities now is to increase the ambition of COVAX to help all countries end the COVID-19 pandemic. This means urgent action to ramp up production," he said, referring to the global platform to share vaccines that he said would have sent products to 51 countries by next week.

The WHO also said on Friday that the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines should not tempt countries to relax efforts to fight the pandemic.

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"We think we're through this. We're not," Mike Ryan, WHO's top emergency expert, told the online briefing.

"Countries are going to lurch into third and fourth surges if we're not careful."

Record COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Brazil this week and its hospital system is on the brink of collapse, driven partly by a more contagious variant first identified there.

On a global level, COVID-19 case numbers reversed a six-week downwards trend last week despite the delivery of millions of doses of vaccines in recent weeks, WHO data showed.

"Now is not the time for Brazil or anywhere else for that matter to be relaxing," Ryan added.

"The arrival of vaccines is a moment of great hope but it is also potentially a moment where we lose concentration."

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