Covid-19 threat expected to become on par with flu this year, says WHO

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Covid-19 could be downgraded from public health emergency of international concern this year as it moves to a similar level of risk to influenza.

WHO’s Michael Ryan said at a press conference today: “We’re at a stage where we can see covid-19 just like the seasonal flu.” It’s not disrupting our society, it’s not disrupting our hospital system.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement at a press conference. “We are certainly in a much better position now than we were at any time during the pandemic,” he said.

In January 2020, the WHO declared covid-19 a public health emergency of international concern after coronavirus cases steadily increased in China and were confirmed in 18 other countries. Declared. Two months later, the organization said the phenomenon had become a pandemic. This is usually taken to mean that the disease has spread to multiple countries, but there is no universally agreed definition.

While coronavirus is still widespread, most people have been infected at least once, many have been vaccinated multiple times, and the current Omicron variant is similar to several past variants. Less pathogenic than seeds, they are less likely to cause serious illness.

“We are very pleased that the number of reported weekly deaths over the past four weeks has decreased for the first time since we first used the word ‘pandemic’ three years ago. I am confident that we can say that covid-19 is over as a public health emergency, and we are not there yet.”

A WHO committee is reviewing criteria that could mean the threat from covid-19 could be downgraded, but has yet to reach a decision.

“We are on a positive trajectory,” Ryan said. “In societies where surges in viral infections are not associated with rising hospitalization rates, viruses represent less and less of a threat,” Ryan said. “We’re starting to see it in the last six months when vaccination coverage is high enough that a surge in infections has not been associated with sustained pressure on the health system.”

But Ryan added that many countries still have gaps in immunization coverage and access to antiviral treatment for medically vulnerable people. We have to protect an affordable community,” he said. And if the virus evolves to become more virulent, “all bets are off,” he said.

But Stephen Griffin of the University of Leeds, UK, who is a member of the independent group of scientists iSAGE, says the WHO’s plans are premature. “Most worrying is the continued isolation and discrimination against millions of clinically vulnerable people, especially those who are unable to mount an effective vaccine response,” he says.