GENEVA: The Covid-19 pandemic may calm down this yr to some extent the place it poses a menace just like flu, the World Well being Group mentioned Friday.
The WHO voiced confidence that it is going to be capable of declare an finish to the emergency a while in 2023, saying it was more and more hopeful concerning the pandemic part of the virus coming to an in depth.
Final weekend marked three years because the UN well being company first described the scenario as a pandemic — although WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insists nations ought to have jolted into motion a number of weeks earlier than.
“I feel we’re coming to that time the place we are able to take a look at Covid-19 in the identical manner we take a look at seasonal influenza,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan instructed a press convention.
“A menace to well being, a virus that can proceed to kill. However a virus that’s not disrupting our society or disrupting our hospital programs, and I consider that that can come, as Tedros mentioned, this yr.”
The WHO chief mentioned the world was in a a lot better place now than it has been at any time through the pandemic.
“I’m assured that this yr we can say that Covid-19 is over as a public well being emergency of worldwide concern (PHEIC),” he mentioned.
5,000 deaths every week
The WHO declared a PHEIC — the best stage of alarm it could possibly sound — on January 30, 2020, when, outdoors of China, fewer than 100 instances and no deaths had been reported.
However it was solely when Tedros described the worsening scenario as a pandemic on March 11 that yr that many nations appeared to get up to the hazard.
“We declared a world well being emergency to spur nations to take decisive motion, however not all nations did,” he mentioned Friday.
“Three years later, there are nearly seven million reported deaths from Covid-19, though we all know that the precise variety of deaths is far larger.”
He was happy that for the primary time, the weekly variety of reported deaths over the previous 4 weeks has been decrease than when he first described Covid-19 as a pandemic.
However he mentioned greater than 5,000 deaths reported per week was 5,000 too many for a illness that may be prevented and handled.
The WHO voiced confidence that it is going to be capable of declare an finish to the emergency a while in 2023, saying it was more and more hopeful concerning the pandemic part of the virus coming to an in depth.
Final weekend marked three years because the UN well being company first described the scenario as a pandemic — although WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insists nations ought to have jolted into motion a number of weeks earlier than.
“I feel we’re coming to that time the place we are able to take a look at Covid-19 in the identical manner we take a look at seasonal influenza,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan instructed a press convention.
“A menace to well being, a virus that can proceed to kill. However a virus that’s not disrupting our society or disrupting our hospital programs, and I consider that that can come, as Tedros mentioned, this yr.”
The WHO chief mentioned the world was in a a lot better place now than it has been at any time through the pandemic.
“I’m assured that this yr we can say that Covid-19 is over as a public well being emergency of worldwide concern (PHEIC),” he mentioned.
5,000 deaths every week
The WHO declared a PHEIC — the best stage of alarm it could possibly sound — on January 30, 2020, when, outdoors of China, fewer than 100 instances and no deaths had been reported.
However it was solely when Tedros described the worsening scenario as a pandemic on March 11 that yr that many nations appeared to get up to the hazard.
“We declared a world well being emergency to spur nations to take decisive motion, however not all nations did,” he mentioned Friday.
“Three years later, there are nearly seven million reported deaths from Covid-19, though we all know that the precise variety of deaths is far larger.”
He was happy that for the primary time, the weekly variety of reported deaths over the previous 4 weeks has been decrease than when he first described Covid-19 as a pandemic.
However he mentioned greater than 5,000 deaths reported per week was 5,000 too many for a illness that may be prevented and handled.
