The Covid-19 pandemic may reach a point this year where its threat is reduced to that of the flu, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Friday.
The organization expressed hope that by 2023 it will be able to declare the COVID-19 emergency to be over because it is certain that the virus’s pandemic phase is coming to an end.
The WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insists that governments should have acted sooner even though it has been three years since the organization first deemed the condition a pandemic.
ALSO READ:
GOVT ANNOUNCES SPECIAL QUOTA FOR HAJJ PILGRIMS WHO CAN PAY FEE IN DOLLARS
Covid-19 will be viewed similarly to seasonal influenza, according to WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan, who stated this during a news briefing: as a virus that continues to pose a threat to health and cause mortality but not one that interferes with our society or hospital systems.
According to Tedros, the world is currently in a much better position than it has ever been during the pandemic. This year, he believes, Covid-19 will cease to be a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
ALSO READ:
PAKISTAN AMONG NATIONS AT RISK FROM TOXIC FAT: WHO
When there were fewer than 100 cases and no fatalities outside of China were reported in January 2020, the WHO declared a PHEIC. But until Tedros declared it a pandemic on March 11th, it didn’t seem as though many countries understood the seriousness of the situation.
Tedros acknowledged that Covid-19 has resulted in approximately seven million documented deaths, but he believes the actual toll is probably much higher. Although he expressed relief that the weekly number of recorded deaths has decreased from when he first declared Covid-19 a pandemic, it has increased for the first time in four weeks.
