The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to maintain its highest level of alert for the Covid-19 pandemic, three years after declaring the disease a public health emergency of international concern.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus followed the recommendations of the Covid-19 Emergency Committee, experts who met for the 14th time on Friday, January 27, according to a press release.
“I remain very concerned about the situation in many countries.”
The committee declared a Covid epidemic”.A public health emergency of international concern(USPPI) as of January 30, 2020, while outside of China, fewer than 100 cases and no deaths had yet been reported. Dr. Tedros has already said that he considers it premature to lift the highest level of alertness. “While I do not want to preempt the advice of the Emergency Committee, I remain concerned about the situation in many countries and the rising death toll.“, he said on Tuesday, January 24, during a regular press briefing in Geneva.
“My message is simple: don’t underestimate this virus, it has surprised us and will continue to surprise us and will continue to kill unless we do more to provide sanitation to people who need it and to fight it. Global disinformation– insisted the general director, who may or may not follow the opinion of the Emergency Committee.
“The epidemic (…) is probably at a transition point”
The somewhat convoluted name of the alert failed to convince the authorities and the general public of the urgency of the situation in January 2020, which allowed the use of the term “”.epidemicOn March 11, 2020, by the head of the WTO. Three years later, the Committee believes that “The Covid-19 pandemic is probably at a transition point” and the CEO said he appreciates “The committee’s advice on navigating this transition with caution and mitigating potential negative effects“.
This Friday, in his introductory speech at the opening of the meeting, the Director General of the WTO emphasized that “Since the beginning of December, the number of weekly deaths has been increasing worldwide“. “In addition, the lifting of restrictions in China has led to an increase in the number of deaths in the world’s most densely populated country.“During the week of January 16 to 22, Director Tedros explained, adding that of the nearly 40,000 deaths from Covid and reported to the WHO;more than half were reported from China“.
170 thousand deaths in the last two months
The disease has killed 170,000 people in the last two months. Dr Tedros lamented that too few people are being properly vaccinated and that surveillance and genetic sequencing, which tracks the evolution of the virus and its movements, has fallen dramatically.
The disease has officially killed 6,804,491 people as of January 27, according to a WHO panel, but both WHO and experts agree the death toll is much higher. The WHO counted 752,517,552 infected people, which is again a much lower number than the reality, especially since new cases are far from always being registered with the decline of tests.
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Source: Le Figaro
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