Despite the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing, these trends indicate that it is time to shift to longer-term disease prevention and control, according to a statement from WHO.
The World Health Organization declared on May 5 that COVID-19 is no longer a global public health emergency.
Two things were mentioned by the organisation: a decline in COVID-19-related hospitalisations and deaths, and high levels of SARS-CoV-2 immunity from immunisation or prior infection.
Despite the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing, these trends indicate that it is time to shift to longer-term disease prevention and control, according to a statement from WHO.
According to infectious disease expert Peter Chin-Hong of the University of California, San Francisco, “it follows on the heels of many countries” doing the same thing, so it is reasonable and makes sense. Officially, the public health emergency in the United States will end on May 11.
However, “this doesn’t mean that it’s not still a threat to global health,” Chin-Hong clarifies. As of May 3, the WHO had received reports of more than 750 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide. And the disease has claimed the lives of almost 7 million people, including more than 1.1 million people in the United States alone.
COVID-19 was classified by WHO as a PHEIC, or public health emergency of international concern, on January 30, 2020. The highest level of alarm allowed by international law is being declared. Two months later, the organisation designated the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak as a pandemic, indicating that it was unmanageable.
These assertions were made in the midst of a terrifying and disorganised period when many countries had already implemented lockdown measures to halt the disease’s spread, there were still far more questions than there were solutions, and no vaccines or treatments had yet been created.
In response to the WHO designations, countries cooperated to jointly gather and share COVID-19 data, including confirmed cases, hospital admissions, deaths, and research.
Tests, vaccines, and treatments have since been created. Worldwide, more than 13 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been given.
The WHO noted that there are still difficulties in controlling the disease, including global disparities in access to care and vaccinations, an evolving virus, and “pandemic fatigue.”
WHO plans to set up a committee to look into the issue of how the disease will be managed over the long term. The organisation will keep an eye on the condition, but it will be integrated into a system that looks at data on influenza around the world.
The demise of the PHEIC, however, could also lead to a further decline in COVID-19 tracking data, which is already insufficient for a number of reasons, including the rise in at-home testing, according to Chin-Hong.
Additionally, there might be less funding available for researchers, which could delay the creation of new vaccines and treatments. He claims that there are consequences from both a research and a clinical care perspective.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged nations to maintain their COVID-19 systems and reminded people that SARS-CoV-2 is still a danger during a press conference on May 5. He declared, “This virus is here to stay.” It is still killing people and changing.