COVID-19 may soon be comparable to a threat seasonal fludeclared the World Health Organization (WHO), which expects to lower its maximum alert level further this year.
WHO also reiterated its call for Beijing to increase transparency in sharing data on COVID-19 after international experts found that China posted online — before deleting it for unknown reasons — new genetic data from samples taken in January 2020 in a market in Wuhan, the city where the virus was first discovered.
Three years after the appearance COVID-19Its origin remains a mystery.
“We are approaching the point where we can look at COVID-19 the same way we look at seasonal flu, which is a health threat. A virus that will continue to cause death, but does not destroy our society or our hospital systems, ”said the head of emergency programs WHOMichael Ryan at a press conference.
“I am very pleased to see that, for the first time, the weekly number of deaths reported last month is lower than what was recorded when we first used the word ‘pandemic’ three years ago,” the WHO said. CEO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusdemonstrating “confidence” that WHO can lower the maximum alert level “this year”.
The WHO declared an “international public health emergency” on January 30, 2020, with fewer than 100 cases worldwide and no deaths outside of Chinabut it wasn’t until Dr. Tedros called the situation a “pandemic” in March 2020 that the world realized the severity of the health threat.
many questions to be answered
“Three years later, almost seven million deaths from COVID-19 were recorded, although we know that this number is higher,” he said. “Despite growing hopes for an end to the pandemic, the question of how it started remains unanswered,” he said.
In this regard, he pointed to China, which, without notifying WHO, published information in the world’s largest database of sequences in late January. SARS-CoV-2 (Gisaid), which may be useful in figuring out the origin of the pandemic. However, he withdrew it soon after.
This WHO publication was announced on Sunday not by China, but by scientists. The data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention refers to samples taken from the Huanan market in Wuhan in 2020, especially from raccoon dogs.
The data, which the scientists were able to download and analyze online, “does not provide a conclusive answer to the question of how the pandemic began,” Dr Tedros explained, but “could – and should have – been published three years ago. “
So far, there have been various theories about the origin of COVID-19, from possible transmission to humans by intermediate animals present on the market in Wuhan, to leakage from the laboratory.
The new Chinese data contains new elements, explained Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, who is responsible for the fight against COVID-19 to the WHO, but there are still many questions to be answered about the animals that were sold in this Chinese city’s market, such as whether they were domesticated and where they came from. (AFP)
Source: RPP
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