The World Health Organization (WHO) stated on Monday that the Covid-19 pandemic remains an international emergency three years after it issued the highest level of global alert.
This conclusion was reached by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in response to the suggestions made by the emergency committee of the United Nations health agency, which met on Friday for the 14th time since the crisis began.
On January 30, 2020, the so-called novel coronavirus was the subject of the WHO’s first declaration of a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC), the organization’s highest level of global alert.
There had been fewer than 100 cases and no deaths outside of China when it raised the alarm.
Since then, the World Health Organization (WHO) has received reports of more than 752 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, including more than 6.8 million deaths, though the actual number is thought to be much higher.
Tedros acknowledged that “as we enter the fourth year of the pandemic, there is no doubt we are in a far better situation now than we were a year ago, when the Omicron wave was at its peak” when he addressed the WHO’s executive board on Monday in Geneva.
However, he went on to say that “weekly reported deaths have been rising” since the beginning of December.
“Covid-19 has claimed the lives of more than 170,000 people in the past eight weeks.”
‘Transition point’
From over 70,000 per week at the beginning of 2022 to below 10,000 in October, weekly death rates had decreased.
However, after Beijing relaxed its stringent Covid restrictions, they immediately began to rise once more at the beginning of December, particularly as a result of a dramatic outbreak in China.
Nearly 40,000 Covid weekly deaths were reported by the middle of January, with more than half occurring in China.
The WHO’s declaration of a PHEIC in 2020, when the global crisis was also concentrated in China, failed to elicit the necessary urgent global response.
On March 11, 2020, when Tedros referred to the worsening Covid situation as a pandemic, many nations realized the danger.
Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the emergency committee considered the pandemic to be “probably at a transition point.”
It stated that Tedros “appreciates the committee’s advice to carefully navigate this transition and mitigate the potential negative consequences.”
However, Tedros reaffirmed his concern regarding a significant decrease in testing and sequencing surveillance of the virus.
He also expressed disappointment over the fact that many vulnerable people are still unvaccinated or undervaccinated and do not have access to the medications required to treat severe Covid disease.
He stated, “We can’t control the virus, but we can do more to address populations’ and health systems’ vulnerabilities.”
This requires vaccinating all of the most vulnerable groups. It means making testing and early use of antivirals more accessible.
The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) issued a warning on Monday that the world remained “dangerously unprepared” for the subsequent crisis.
According to IFRC secretary general Jagan Chapagain, “the Covid-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call for the global community to prepare now for the next health crisis.”
He warned, “The next pandemic could be just around the corner.” What will accelerate our preparations if the Covid-19 experience does not?
