The World Health Organisation (WHO) has again warned that COVID-19 is still a global health threat and that it is not time to declare the pandemic over.

WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus said this in a statement on Monday while commenting on the outcome of the COVID Emergency Committee meeting held on Friday.

“There is little doubt that this virus will remain a permanently established pathogen in humans and animals for the foreseeable future,” the committee said. “It is three years since COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency of international concern. The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was first reported in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019.”

The WHO chief said that although the world was in a better position than a year ago when Omicron infections surged, more than 170,000 COVID-19-related deaths had been reported globally in the last eight weeks.

Mr Ghebreyesus noted again that surveillance and genetic sequencing of the coronavirus had declined globally, making it more difficult to track known variants and detect new mutations.

He warned that health systems struggled to treat many COVID-19 patients and others with influenza and respiratory infections amid staff shortages and health worker burnout.

The UN health agency chief also insisted that vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics remained critical in preventing severe disease, saving lives and taking the pressure off health systems and health workers globally.

Despite their proven worth, he said that the COVID-19 response remained “hobbled” in too many countries that cannot provide these tools to the populations most in need, older people and health workers.

Globally, more than 752.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6.8 million deaths, were reported to WHO’s coronavirus dashboard. At the WHO meeting of the Emergency COVID Committee, participants heard that globally, 13.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have now been administered, with 89 per cent of health workers and 81 per cent of older adults (over 60) completing the primary series.

Committee members expressed concerns about insufficient vaccine uptake in low and middle-income countries, as well as in the highest-risk groups globally, and the uncertainty associated with emerging variants.

They also recognised that “pandemic fatigue” and the impression of reduced risk “have led to drastically reduced use of public health and social measures, such as masks and social distancing.”

The UN health agency recommended that countries remain vigilant and continue reporting surveillance and genomic sequencing data to WHO.

“Appropriately targeted” public health and social measures should also be implemented where necessary, and the most vulnerable communities should be vaccinated to minimise severe disease and deaths,” the WHO meeting noted.

The Emergency Committee explained that although the Omicron variants circulating globally remained highly transmissible, infection no longer necessarily means that severe disease will follow, compared to earlier coronavirus variants of concern. 

(NAN)