The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed this Thursday the trend of reduction in deaths caused by Covid-19 in recent weeks, but warned of the “critical uncertainties” about the evolution of the SARS-CoV coronavirus -2.
“In each of the last ten weeks, the number of deaths reported weekly was the lowest since March 2020,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the opening of the WHO Emergency Committee meeting that assesses whether the pandemic still constitutes a global public health emergency (ESPIA).
To the experts from various areas that make up this committee, the general director of the organization said that it was “very gratifying to see that the downward trend” in the number of deaths has continued since the last meeting, which took place in January.
“This sustained trend has allowed life to return to normal in most countries and has increased the capacity of health systems to deal with possible outbreaks and the burden of the post-Covid-19 condition” (permanence of symptoms after infection or ‘long Covid’), said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Despite this, the WHO official warned that “there are still some critical uncertainties about the evolution of the virus, which make it difficult to predict” the dynamics of its future transmission or its seasonal behavior.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also highlighted that the surveillance and genetic sequencing of the coronavirus “has decreased significantly throughout the world” after the most critical phase of the pandemic, making it difficult to track already known variants and detect new ones.
“Pandemic fatigue threatens us all. We are all fed up with this pandemic and we want to put it behind us, but this virus is here to stay and all countries will have to learn to manage it along with other infectious diseases”, acknowledged the director general of the WHO.
The organization launched this Wednesday a new global plan for the management of Covid-19 until 2025, which warns of the millions of cases of ‘long Covid’ that will continue to need medical attention.
The Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) is the fourth update of the document since the beginning of the pandemic and aims to support countries in the transition from the emergency phase of the pandemic to long-term management of the disease. .
The WHO Emergency Committee, made up of various experts and convened by the Director-General, meets quarterly to assess whether or not the pandemic constitutes a global public health emergency (PHEIC).
This group of experts then issues an opinion which, in most cases, is adopted by the WHO.
At the previous meeting, at the end of January, it was decided to maintain the public health emergency, considering that Covid-19 continued to be “a dangerous infectious disease”, with the potential to still cause considerable damage to the health of people and Systems of health. of the countries.
The PHEIC is the highest alert level and applies to “an extraordinary, severe, sudden, unusual or unexpected event” with public health implications beyond the national border of an affected State and which may require immediate international action. .
According to the most recent data from the WHO, the pandemic has already caused more than 765 million confirmed cases of infection and more than 6.9 million deaths worldwide.
Source: TSF
