On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched a new initiative to help strengthen countries’ ability to plan for and deal with another deadly pandemic like COVID-19.

WHO said the latest figures showed a huge fall in COVID-19 deaths this year.

The guidance provides a joined-up approach for responding to the threat or arrival of any respiratory pathogen, such as flu or the coronavirus range, that can rapidly mutate into different variants.

The new ‘Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats Initiative’, incorporates the latest tools and approaches for shared learning and collective action established during the COVID-19 pandemic, and other recent public health emergencies, according to WHO.

WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing that the agency would launch its fourth ‘Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SRP)’ next week. The first was launched at the start of the COVID-19 emergency in February 2020.

This update outlines how countries can “transition from an emergency response to long-term, sustained management of COVID-19 over two years.

However, some countries are seeing increases, Ghebreyesus cautioned, and over the past four weeks, 14,000 people lost their lives to COVID. He said an estimated one in 10 infections had resulted in what’s commonly known as “long COVID,” suggesting that hundreds of millions of people would need longer-term care moving forward.

The emergence of the new XBB.1.16 variant shows the virus is still changing and capable of causing new waves of disease and death, he said.

“We remain hopeful that sometime this year, we will be able to declare an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern. “But this virus is here to stay, and all countries will need to learn to manage it alongside other infectious diseases,” he said.

(NAN)