End of COVID pandemic is ‘in sight’ -WHO chief

Sept 14 (Reuters) – The world has by no means been in a greater place to finish the COVID-19 pandemic, the top of the World Health Organization mentioned on Wednesday, his most optimistic outlook but on the years-long well being disaster which has killed over six million individuals.

“We are not there yet. But the end is in sight,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus advised reporters at a digital press convention.

That was essentially the most upbeat evaluation from the UN company because it declared a global emergency in January 2020 and began describing COVID-19 as a pandemic three months later.

The virus, which emerged in China in late 2019, has killed almost 6.5 million individuals and contaminated 606 million, roiling world economies and overwhelming healthcare programs.

The rollout of vaccines and therapies have helped to stem deaths and hospitalisations, and the Omicron variant which emerged late final 12 months causes much less extreme illness. Deaths from COVID-19 final week have been the bottom since March 2020, the U.N. company reported.

Still on Wednesday, he once more urged nations to keep up their vigilance and likened the pandemic to a marathon race.

“Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap the rewards of all our hard work.”

Countries must take a tough take a look at their insurance policies and strengthen them for COVID-19 and future viruses, Tedros mentioned. He additionally urged nations to vaccinate 100% of their high-risk teams and maintain testing for the virus.

The WHO mentioned international locations want to keep up enough provides of medical gear and healthcare employees.

“We expect there to be future waves of infections, potentially at different time points throughout the world caused by different subvariants of Omicron or even different variants of concern,” mentioned WHO’s senior epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove.

With over 1 million deaths this 12 months alone, the pandemic stays an emergency globally and inside most international locations.

“The COVID-19 summer wave, driven by Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, showed that the pandemic is not yet over as the virus continues to circulate in Europe and beyond,” a European Commission spokesperson mentioned.

WHO’s subsequent assembly of specialists to resolve whether or not the pandemic nonetheless represents a public well being emergency of worldwide concern is due in October, a WHO spokesperson mentioned.

GLOBAL EMERGENCY

“It’s probably fair to say most of the world is moving beyond the emergency phase of the pandemic response,” mentioned Dr Michael Head, senior analysis fellow in world well being at Southampton University.

Governments are actually how finest to handle COVID as half of their routine healthcare and surveillance, he mentioned.

Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States have permitted vaccines that concentrate on the Omicron variant in addition to the unique virus as international locations put together to launch winter booster campaigns.

In the United States, COVID-19 was initially declared a public well being emergency in January 2020, and that standing has been renewed quarterly ever since.

The U.S. well being division is set to resume it once more in mid-October for what coverage specialists anticipate is the final time earlier than it expires in January 2023.

U.S. well being officers have mentioned that the pandemic is not over, however that new bivalent vaccines mark an necessary shift within the battle towards the virus. They predict {that a} single annual vaccine akin to the flu shot ought to present a excessive diploma of safety and return the nation nearer to normalcy.

Reporting by Manas Mishra, Khushi Mandowara in Bengaluru, Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Jennifer Rigby in London; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, William Maclean, Josephine Mason, Elaine Hardcastle

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