WHO hopes to end COVID-19 emergency

Covid-19 would no longer be a public health emergency in 2023, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the WHO has asked the information from China that could pinpoint how the pandemic started. The third anniversary of COVID-19 is almost there and the weekly Covid death toll was now around a fifth of what it was a year ago.

Addressing the press conference WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Last week, less than 10,000 people lost their lives. That’s still 10,000 too many and there is still a lot that all countries can do to save lives.”

“But we have come a long way. We are hopeful that at some point next year, we will be able to say that Covid-19 is no longer a global health emergency,” Ghebreyesus said.

Moreover, waves of infection are still expected, during the pandemic. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said is not what it was in the beginning with cases resulting in fewer hospitalizations and deaths.”

“These deaths are largely happening among people who are not vaccinated,” or have not received their full course of jabs, Van Kerkhove said.

However, 13 billion vaccine doses have been administered to the people and 30 percent of the world has not received a single dose, said WHO.

According to the WHO due to COVID-19 6.6 million died and 650 million confirmed Covid cases. Earlier on December 2019 a case of COVID-19 was reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

“We continue to call on China to share the data and conduct the studies that we have requested, to better understand the origins of this virus,” Tedros said.

Talking about the new vaccines Tedros said “This virus will not go away. It’s here to stay and all countries will need to learn to manage it alongside other respiratory illnesses.”

Furthermore, WHO’s vaccines chief Kate O’Brien said, “We would love to have vaccines that are more effective against infection and transmission and have a greater duration of protection.”