The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that COVID-19 is no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision following the recommendations of the organization’s COVID-19 Emergency Committee. At this Thursday’s meeting, the committee highlighted the declining trend in deaths and hospitalizations, as well as high levels of herd immunity to SARS-CoV-2, as reasons for ending PHEIC.
At a press conference the next day, Tedros stressed that COVID-19 remained a global health threat, and said the new situation did not mean countries should let their guard down. It’s time to move from COVID-19 to managing COVID-19 along with other infectious diseases.”
This announcement was not surprising. After the emergency committee’s final meeting in late January, Tedros acknowledged that the pandemic was probably at a transition point.
“This is not an easy decision. It is a decision that has been carefully considered, planned and made based on careful analysis of data,” he said at a press conference.
real impact
A PHEIC is defined by WHO as an unusual event that constitutes a public health risk to other countries through the international spread of the disease and is the highest level of international public health alert. COVID-19 PHEIC was declared on January 30, 2020. In effect, the decision forced countries to report cases to WHO to create global surveillance. “The important thing is to let all countries know that they need to be prepared,” says epidemiologist Salim Abdul He Karim, director of South Africa’s Center for AIDS Research Programs in Durban.
Three years, three months and five days after the PHEIC was first established, countries reported 7 million deaths to WHO. Estimates by WHO and others for the actual number of deaths from the pandemic are two to three times higher.
There are no hard and fast rules for determining when PHEIC ends, Karim says. “We are still in the middle of a pandemic. We are just in another phase where we are no longer seeing high numbers of deaths and pressure on hospitals,” he adds. For Karim, the end of PHEIC is the realization that SARS-CoV-2 will be around for a long time.
But while he says the decision was practical and rational, he worries about what it might mean in terms of resources and the availability of diagnostic tests, vaccinations and treatments.
Epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, said the decision was a practical one given that many countries have already relaxed measures to combat COVID-19. “Unfortunately, the political interest in the pandemic was lost long before this decision,” Nuzzo said. “While COVID-19 remains the leading cause of death, governments have decided to focus their efforts elsewhere.”
Nuzzo said it’s important to distinguish between ending PHEIC and countries’ decisions to end the public health emergency. For example, the United States has announced that the COVID-19 health emergency will end on his May 11th. This means the US resident will no longer be able to get her free COVID-19 tests, vaccines and treatment. “That exacerbates inequalities in access to diagnostic care, and that is my concern,” says Karim.
way to proceed
In his statement, Tedros said he also decided to set up a review committee to make long-term recommendations for countries on how to manage COVID-19 going forward. On Wednesday, WHO released an updated strategic preparedness and response plan for COVID-19, outlining actions countries should take over the next two years.
“The most urgent thing now is for countries to not turn their backs on trying to learn the lessons of COVID and be better prepared for future pandemics,” Nuzzo said.
This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on May 5, 2023.
