WHO may declare end of Covid-19 a public health emergency this year

SAFAKNA TURKEY – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), said: “It’s great to see that the number of weekly deaths reported last month is lower than when we first used the word ‘pandemic’ for three years. back. “I am confident that this year we can say that Covid-19 has ended as a public health emergency of international concern.”

Ghebreyesus made the assessments at a weekly press conference at WHO headquarters.

Recalling that 3 years have passed since Covid-19 was declared a global epidemic on March 11, 2020, and this is an important moment that has attracted the attention of the whole world, Ghebreyesus said that Covid-19 has been declared a “public health emergency”. WHO 30 January 2020 He said it was more important.

REPORTING 7 MILLION DEATHS

Ghebreyesus said: “After 3 years, there have been almost 7 million deaths due to Covid-19 in this process, although we know the number is higher. We are certainly in a much better position now than we have ever been during a pandemic. It’s good to see that the number of weekly deaths reported last month is lower than three years ago when we first used the word “pandemic”. “I am confident that this year we can say that Covid-19 has ended as a public health emergency of international concern.”

Stating that they are not going to say that Covid-19 is not a public health emergency at the moment, Ghebreyesus explained that more than 5 thousand deaths due to Covid-19 were recorded last week, which is too many for the disease. which can be prevented and treated.

Ghebreyesus also stressed that he was briefed last week about the data published in the WHO Global Initiative for Influenza Data Sharing (GISAID) database at the end of January and was recently deleted again, stressing that data from the CDC is relevant to data from huanan seafood market in 2020.

Noting that scientists from different countries are downloading and analyzing this data during the process, where it can be accessed online, Ghebreyesus said: “As soon as we became aware of this data, we contacted the CDC and offered to share it with the WHO. and the international scientific community so that they can be analyzed.”

A CALL FOR SHARING DATA ON COVID-19

Ghebreyesus explained that the Scientific Advisory Group on the Origin of Covid-19 Pathogens (SAGO) met on March 14, where researchers from the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) and an international team of scientists presented their data for analysis. in SAGO.

How did the pandemic start? Ghebreyesus, who said that he did not give a definitive answer to the question, but that each of them came a little closer to this answer, indicated that all data related to the study of the origin of Covid-19 should be quickly shared with the international community.

“These data could and should have been published 3 years ago,” Ghebreyesus said. We continue to urge China to be transparent in data sharing, conduct necessary investigations and share results. “Understanding how the epidemic began remains both a moral and a scientific imperative.”