WHO Says Covid-19 remains 'Global Health Emergency'

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to be a “global health emergency" and the deadly virus will remain a “permanently established pathogen" in humans and animals for the foreseeable future, according to the World Health Organisation.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday that as the world enters the fourth year of the pandemic, there is no doubt that “we are in a far better situation now" than a year ago when the Omicron wave was at its peak. He said Covid-19 continues to be a health emergency.

The Committee acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic may be approaching an “inflexion point".

It noted that while eliminating the virus from human and animal reservoirs is highly unlikely, mitigation of its devastating impact on morbidity and mortality is achievable and should continue to be a “prioritised goal".

Ghebreyesus cautioned that since the beginning of December, weekly reported deaths have been rising and in the past eight weeks, more than 170,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19.

It also means increasing access to testing and early antiviral use; taking context-specific measures when there is a surge in cases and maintaining and expanding laboratory networks.

He also called for fighting misinformation relating to the virus and vaccinations.

The novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019. Globally, there have been more than 752.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6.8 million deaths till date, according to WHO.