Geneva - Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The Director-General of the World Health Organization has declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a public health emergency at the international level, but rather an ongoing health issue. According to the United Nations daily bulletin, a copy of which we received via e-mail
This came after WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus endorsed a recommendation issued by the fifteenth meeting of the Emergency Committee on the International Health Regulations for the pandemic.
In their meeting, committee members highlighted the decreasing trend in the number of deaths from COVID-19, the decline in the number of cases requiring hospitalization and intensive care units, and the high levels of people's immunity against the virus.
While recognizing that there are some uncertainties about the possible evolution of the virus that causes COVID-19, the committee members recommended that it is time to move to the long-term management phase of the pandemic.
The World Health Organization stressed that this does not mean that the Covid-19 pandemic has ended as a health threat at the international level.
At a press conference in Geneva, the director-general of the organization said that Covid-19 had led to the death of a person every 3 minutes, last week.
The World Health Organization recommended that all countries include vaccines against the disease in immunization programs and continue to support research to improve vaccines and reduce infection.
The WHO declared COVID-19 a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern" on January 30, 2020.