COVID still a global health emergency, clarifies WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday stated that the coronavirus remains a global health emergency.

This comes after a key advisory panel found that the pandemic may be nearing an “inflexion point” where higher levels of immunity can lower virus-related deaths.

Addressing the WHO’s annual executive board meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the situation is undoubtedly far better now than the last year when the world was grappling with the highly contagious Omicron variant. However, at the same time he had a word of caution, revealing that at least 1.7 lakh coronavirus-related deaths have been reported in the world over the last couple of months.

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Tedros called for complete vaccination of at-risk groups, increase in testing and early use of antivirals, expansion of lab networks, and curbing “misinformation” about the pandemic.

“We are hopeful the world will transition to a new phase in the coming year in which hospitalisations and deaths are reduced to the lowest possible level,” he said.

Tedros made these comments after WHO released findings of its emergency committee on the pandemic. The panel reported that 13.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered with nearly 90% of health workers and a majority of people above 60 years of age having completed the first series of jabs.

Also read: China records nearly 60,000 Covid-related deaths since December

“The committee acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic may be approaching an inflexion point,” WHO said in a statement. Higher levels of immunity worldwide through vaccination or infection “may limit the impact” of the virus that causes COVID-19 on “morbidity and mortality,” the committee said.

“But there is little doubt that this virus will remain a permanently established pathogen in humans and animals for the foreseeable future,” it said. While Omicron versions are easily spread, “there has been a decoupling between infection and severe disease” compared to that of earlier variants.

Committee members cited “pandemic fatigue” and the increasing public perception that COVID-19 isn’t as much of a risk as it once was, prompting people to either ignore or disregard health measures like wearing masks and social distancing.