covid-19 - 626Blaze

COVID-19 May End This Year – WHO

The World Health Organisation has predicted that the ravaging COVID-19 virus may likely end as a public health emergency in 2023.

The Director General of the Organisation, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus disclosed this at a virtual media briefing on Friday, March 17.

Recall that COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020, when there were fewer than 100 reported cases of COVID-19 outside China, and also no reported deaths outside the Communist country.

A public health emergency of international concern is the highest level of alarm that the WHO can sound under international law.

During the briefing, the WHO chief said there were now almost seven million reported deaths from COVID-19, although the actual number of deaths was much higher.

“We are certainly in a much better position now than we have been at any time during the pandemic. It’s very pleasing to see that for the first time, the weekly number of reported deaths in the past four weeks has been lower than when we first used the word ‘pandemic’ three years ago.

“I am confident that this year we will be able to say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern.

“We are not there yet. Last week, there were still more than five thousand reported deaths. That’s five thousand too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated. Even as we become increasingly hopeful about the end of the pandemic, the question of how it began remains unanswered,” he said.

Ghebreyesus urged China to be ‘transparent’ in sharing COVID-19 data in efforts to determine the disease’s origins.

The Minister on an interview with Channels Tv, revealed the Federal government is not happy with the hastiness and rationale for putting of Nigeria on its red list following the detection of the COVID-19 Omicron variant.

Dr Osagie Ehanire stated that the step the Uk government is taking is not helpful, because there hasn’t been report of any severe illness or fatalities and not much is known about the Covid-19 Variant.

He said;

“We were not very happy when six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa were placed on a red list and the WHO also advised against putting each on the red list.
“From what we know about the COVID-19, there are many ways to manage it, and besides, not much is still known about the Omicron variant. We know, for example, that there have been no fatalities. There have also been no reports of very severe illness. Actually, the rationale for being so hasty in putting countries on the red list is not something that is very helpful. It is going to disrupt commerce. It is going to disrupt family reunions. If every country were going to put other countries on the ban list, very soon you would have a large number of countries on your red list. So, I do believe there are other ways of going about it. We in Nigeria do not regard banning flights and movements of people as particularly helpful and supportive.”