WHO to Asharq Al-Awsat: Work Underway on Coexistence Strategy for Coronavirus

WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Ahmed Al-Mandhari, Asharq Al-Awsat
WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Ahmed Al-Mandhari, Asharq Al-Awsat
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WHO to Asharq Al-Awsat: Work Underway on Coexistence Strategy for Coronavirus

WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Ahmed Al-Mandhari, Asharq Al-Awsat
WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Ahmed Al-Mandhari, Asharq Al-Awsat

The World Health Organization (WHO) is working on a strategy to coexist with the pandemic during the coming months, revealed WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Ahmed Al-Mandhari.

Al-Mandhari told Asharq Al-Awsat that more than 15 million coronavirus infections had been reported worldwide within a week. Although the figure is the highest reported since the pandemic outbreak, Al-Mandhari believes it is lower than the actual number of cases.

He explained that this massive rise in infections is driven by the Omicron variant, which is rapidly replacing the Delta variant in all countries. Omicron has so far appeared in 149 countries out of the six world regions.

“The critical phase of the pandemic, characterized by the tragedies of deaths and hospitalizations, could end in 2022, and in the coming months, we will work on developing a strategy for coexistence with the coronavirus in our region,” said Al-Mandhari.

“This will not eliminate the virus, but we can control it enough to live with it, as we do with the seasonal flu virus and other common viruses,” he added.

“Right now, we’re still in the middle of a pandemic. Our priority is saving lives using all available tools proven to be effective.”

“We know that people are tired, but we must prepare and anticipate this virus and not allow it to lead us one step further,” affirmed the WHO official.

According to Al-Mandhari, several countries inside and outside Africa suffer from weak infrastructure and a fragile health system, as well as the repercussions of wars, conflicts, and health emergencies.

All these factors combined played into depriving African countries and many countries under similar circumstances of obtaining access to their vaccination needs or successfully completing the vaccination process.

“Vaccine inequality, and health inequality in general, were the biggest failures of the past year. Unfortunately, through low vaccination rates, we have created the ideal conditions for new variants to emerge,” said Al-Mandhari.

“To remedy this situation, we must support these countries to help them achieve vaccination goals. Stopping the spread of the virus and avoiding the emergence of new mutations depends on our need to achieve herd immunity through access to high levels of vaccination,” he explained.

With the infection rate on the rise, Al-Mandhari recommended that countries increase the availability of free and easy rapid diagnostic test options that provide high levels of accuracy with the added advantage of being less expensive and less time-consuming than PCR tests.

“It remains a key priority to support and equip frontline health workers, they have been overworked over the past two years, but their role is still critical,” said Al-Mandhari.

“It is necessary to work to improve the preparedness of hospitals and increase their capacity to deal with the increasing number of cases.”

Regarding challenges expected in 2022, Al-Mandhari said: “We are on the cusp of the third year of the pandemic, and we are still fighting a full battle against this virus, despite new tools such as vaccines and treatments.”

“Inequity in the distribution of vaccines, hesitation in taking them, and low levels of adherence to public health and social measures are all challenges we have faced in the past two years and have given the virus a chance to advance again.”

“We will face the same challenges this year, and the consequences may be more severe due to the new variant,” warned Al-Mandhari.

As for Saudi Arabia, Al-Mandhari confirmed that the Kingdom continues to exert maximum efforts to curb the spread of the pandemic. At the same time, Saudi Arabia is looking to raise the level of vaccination rollout so that it covers most residents.

According to the WHO official, the Kingdom is one of the countries that have achieved its target vaccination rate.



Hochstein to Asharq Al-Awsat: Land Border Demarcation between Lebanon, Israel ‘is Within Reach’

AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
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Hochstein to Asharq Al-Awsat: Land Border Demarcation between Lebanon, Israel ‘is Within Reach’

AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon

The former US special envoy, Amos Hochstein, said the maritime border agreement struck between Lebanon and Israel in 2022 and the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hezbollah at the end of last year show that a land border demarcation “is within reach.”

“We can get to a deal but there has to be political willingness,” he said.

“The agreement of the maritime boundary was unique because we’d been trying to work on it for over 10 years,” Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“I understood that a simple diplomatic push for a line was not going to work. It had to be a more complicated and comprehensive agreement. And there was a real threat that people didn’t realize that if we didn’t reach an agreement we would have ended up in a conflict - in a hot conflict - or war over resources.”

He said there is a possibility to reach a Lebanese-Israeli land border agreement because there’s a “provision that mandated the beginning of talks on the land boundary.”

“I believe with concerted effort they can be done quickly,” he said, adding: “It is within reach.”

Hochstein described communication with Hezbollah as “complicated,” saying “I never had only one interlocutor with Hezbollah .... and the first step is to do shuttle diplomacy between Lebanon, Lebanon and Lebanon, and then you had to go to Israel and do shuttle diplomacy between the different factions” there.

“The reality of today and the reality of 2022 are different. Hezbollah had a lock on the political system in Lebanon in the way it doesn’t today.”

North of Litani

The 2024 ceasefire agreement requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to take full operational control of the south Litani region, all the way up to the border. It requires Hezbollah to demilitarize and move further north of the Litani region, he said.

“I don’t want to get into the details of other violations,” he said, but stated that the ceasefire works if both conditions are met.

Lebanon’s opportunity

“Lebanon can rewrite its future ... but it has to be a fundamental change,” he said.

“There is so much potential in Lebanon and if you can bring back opportunity and jobs - and through economic and legal reforms in the country - I think that the future is very bright,” Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Hezbollah is not trying to control the politics and remember that Hezbollah is just an arm of Iran” which “should not be imposing its political will in Lebanon, Israel should not be imposing its military will in Lebanon, Syria should not. No one should. This a moment for Lebanon to make decisions for itself,” he added.