OUR World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that COVID-19 continues to represent a global emergency – the Agency’s highest level of preparedness.

The pandemic is likely at a “transition point” that still needs to be carefully managed to “limit possible negative impacts,” the WHO said in a statement.

It has been three years since the Agency declared COVID a global emergency.

More than 6.8 million people have died as a result of the pandemic, which has affected every country on the planet, negatively affecting the economy and society.

However, the development of vaccines and treatments has significantly changed the state of the pandemic since 2020, and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed hope that the global emergency will end this year, especially if global health improves access to protective equipment.

“We remain optimistic that over the next year the world will enter a new phase in which the number of hospitalizations from COVID will decrease and the death rate will fall to the lowest possible level,” Ghebreyesus said at today’s WHO meeting.

Advisors to the WHO expert group on the pandemic told Reuters in December that it might not be time to end the high alert, given the uncertainty over a wave of infections in China after the lifting of strict zero-tolerance measures. at the end of 2022.

^{Source: APE, Reuters, AFP, Xinhua.}