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by Robin Millard
© Agence France-Presse
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO’s emergency committee on Covid-19 on Wednesday unanimously affirmed that the virus stays a serious public well being hazard and insisted that international locations should cease dropping their guard.
With many countries stress-free public well being and social measures, and drastically lowering testing for the virus, the World Well being Group’s group of consultants mentioned the pandemic was removed from being at an finish.
“Now shouldn’t be the time to let our guard down — quite the opposite, and that is an especially sturdy advice,” committee chair Didier Houssin instructed a press convention.
“The state of affairs is way from over with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic, the circulation of the virus remains to be very lively, mortality stays excessive and the virus is evolving in an unpredictable method,” the French physician warned.
“Now shouldn’t be the time for leisure on this virus, nor weak point in surveillance, testing and reporting, nor laxity in public and social well being measures and no resignation with regards to vaccination.”
The committee meets each three months to debate the pandemic and stories to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
It concluded that the pandemic nonetheless constitutes a public well being emergency of worldwide concern (PHEIC) — the very best stage of alert that the WHO can sound.
‘Center’ section of pandemic
The committee declared the Covid-19 outbreak a PHEIC on January 30, 2020, when, exterior of China, fewer than 100 instances and no deaths had been reported.
Although it’s the internationally-agreed mechanism for triggering a world response to such outbreaks, it was solely Tedros after describing the worsening state of affairs as a pandemic on March 11 that many international locations woke as much as the hazard.
“The committee unanimously agreed that the Covid-19 pandemic nonetheless constitutes a unprecedented occasion that continues to adversely have an effect on the well being of populations around the globe, poses an ongoing threat of worldwide unfold,” it mentioned in an announcement Wednesday.
Globally, within the week to Sunday, the variety of new Covid-19 instances and deaths continued to say no for a 3rd consecutive week, with greater than seven million instances and over 22,000 deaths reported.
This was the bottom variety of Covid deaths for the reason that early days of the pandemic.
Nevertheless, some international locations are nonetheless witnessing severe spikes in instances, which is placing strain on hospitals, mentioned Tedros, including that the world is “nonetheless in the course of the pandemic”.
“This virus has over time turn out to be extra transmissible and it stays lethal particularly for the unprotected and unvaccinated that don’t have entry to well being care and antivirals,” he mentioned.
Tedros urged folks to get vaccinated and proceed carrying masks, particularly in crowded indoor areas.
The WHO mentioned the Omicron variant accounted for 99.2 p.c of samples collected within the final 30 days which have been sequenced and uploaded to the GISAID world science initiative, with the previously-dominant Delta variant now lower than 0.1 p.c.
© Agence France-Presse
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