WHO lifts corona emergency

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The global coronavirus pandemic is no longer considered an international health emergency. This was decided by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday. This has no concrete consequences, because each country decides on its own protection measures.

According to new information from the WHO, the corona pandemic has killed at least 20 million people worldwide. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (58) said in Geneva on Friday that the new number of victims is almost three times higher than the previous official figures.

The WHO lifts the highest alert level that can be imposed in the event of a threat. “The pandemic has been on a downward trend for a year now,” Tedros says, referring to increased immunity to vaccines and infections. The decision has no concrete consequences because each country decides for itself which protection measures it will impose.

Wear a face mask, keep your distance

The Sars-CoV-2 virus has not been defeated, as Tedros stressed. It continues to circulate in the world, is dangerous and can develop dangerous variants at any time. Still, the WHO followed the recommendation of an independent expert committee because it is convinced that the world has good tools to protect people against the virus. In addition to vaccines and medication, this also includes protective measures such as wearing face masks or keeping your distance in busy and poorly ventilated indoor spaces.

According to an analysis, the UN solidarity vaccination program Covax alone saved 2.7 million lives in low-income countries through corona vaccinations by the end of 2022.

The WHO had to declare a state of emergency seven times

According to WHO statistics, significantly fewer people are experiencing a serious course of the Covid-19 disease than at the beginning of the pandemic, when vaccines and medicines were not yet available. Nevertheless, from April 3 to 30 of this year alone, nearly 2.8 million new infections and more than 17,000 deaths were reported to the WHO. However, as testing is scarce in many countries, this is not considered an accurate picture of the situation.

When WHO declares a public health emergency, it wants to urge governments and the public to take a threat seriously and prepare. Each government decides for itself which specific recommendations or restrictions to impose. The WHO only makes recommendations. The WHO continues to call on governments not to continue with business as usual. For months she has been asking for more corona tests and genetic research into viruses. This is the only way to get an overview of the distribution of possible new variants.

The WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern seven times since 2005 – officially a “PHEIC – Public Health Emergency of International Concern”. The Corona emergency was the second longest. The longest applies to polio and has existed since 2014. Since July 2022, there has also been a monkeypox emergency. Emergencies have also been declared for influenza A virus H1N1 (2009-2010), Ebola in West Africa (2014-2016), Zika (2016) and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2019-2020). (SDA)

Source: Blick