WHO Says COVID-19 Pandemic at ‘Transition Point’ But Upholds Emergency Status
The decision to continue the pandemic’s status of a public health emergency of international concern was widely expected given the latest COVID-19 surge in China.
The COVID-19 pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organization said on Monday, citing increasing coronavirus deaths globally.
“As we enter the fourth year of the pandemic, there is no doubt we are in a far better situation now than we were a year ago, when the omicron wave was at its peak,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “But since the beginning of December, weekly reported deaths have been rising. In the past eight weeks, more than 170,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19. And that’s just the reported deaths; we know the actual number is much higher.”
The decision was widely expected given the latest COVID-19 surge in China, which experts believe to be drastically undercounted.
Still, the organization said in a statement that the pandemic is likely at a “transition point.”
“We remain hopeful that in the coming year, the world will transition to a new phase in which we reduce hospitalizations and deaths to the lowest possible level, and health systems are able to manage COVID-19 in an integrated and sustainable way,” Tedros said on Monday. Read More…
