International News: World Health Organization (WHO) maintains highest alert over COVID, but sees hope ahead

Published by BBNTEAM at January 30, 2023

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Posted: Monday, January 30, 2023. 4:13 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: Three years after the first global declaration of a health emergency with regard to COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the pandemic remains at that stage but was now in a “transition point” that needed to be carefully managed, Reuters reports.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus indicated that he hopes to see an end to the emergency this year, particularly if access to the counter-measures can be improved globally. He told a separate meeting of the organization today, “We remain hopeful that in the coming year, the world will transition to a new phase in which we reduce (COVID) hospitalizations and deaths to their lowest possible level.”

The delay in ending the emergency, according to advisors to the WHO expert committee on the pandemic’s status, is a result of the uncertainty over the wave of infections in China after it lifted its strict zero-COVID measures at the end of 2022.

In the three years of the pandemic, more than 6.8 million people have died and its effects have ravaged communities and economies.

However, the advent of vaccines and treatments has changed the pandemic situation considerably since 2020.

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