The World Health Organization (WHO) declared today, more than three years later, that COVID-19 is no longer a health emergency. This does not mean that COVID-19 has magically disappeared, but WHO has lowered the level of alertness associated with the disease.
Thanks to immunity through vaccines and infections, the pandemic is on the decline. The death rate has decreased and the pressure on health facilities has eased. These data have raised COVID to the level of a “health threat”, announcing the WHO Emergency Committee’s decision to no longer consider it an emergency.
“With great hope, we declare that COVID19 is no longer a global health emergency. However, this does not mean that COVID-19 has ended as a global health threat.
Many countries have already returned to routine business life. But in fact, COVID infections persist, and new variants continue to emerge, spread and, unfortunately, kill.
Dr. “Last week, COVID-19 took a life every three minutes. And these are deaths that only we know about,” Tedros told the media, adding: “As we speak, thousands of people around the world are struggling to survive in intensive care units. It continues to live with the debilitating effects of the post-COVID-19 situation.”
The WHO chief has taken the unprecedented step of establishing a Review Committee to continually develop COVID-19 management strategies, calling for continued vigilance against this disease that now lives among us.
The status change is not for countries to pretend that COVID-19 is gone, but for managing the disease along with other infectious pathogens in our environment. COVID continues to be dangerous and it is important that this information is not forgotten.
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