The new wave of COVID in China calls into question the cancellation of the pandemic status discussed by the WHO at the end of last year.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday discussed whether it is possible to declare an end to the H1N1 pandemic, which it declared nearly three years ago, and concluded that the pandemic is still ongoing.
Formally, the decision means that the status of a COVID-19 pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern. This is the highest level of threat in the WHO classification.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has agreed to the recommendations of the Emergency Committee on the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response made at its meeting on 27 January, the agency said in a statement.
At the end of last year, the head of the WHO expressed hope that the coronavirus emergency status could soon be lifted, but the surge of cases in China and the global rise in deaths in early 2023 have called those predictions into question.
In September last year, the WHO Director-General expressed confidence that the end of the pandemic was not far off, and in December he hoped it would be over by 2023. At that time, according to WHO data, the average number of Covid-19-related deaths worldwide was 10 thousand per week – five times less than in January 2022.
However, on Tuesday of this week, the head of the WHO expressed concern about the sharp increase in the number of Covid-19 deaths worldwide since December.
In the five weeks after China’s “Zero Covid Policy” was lifted, authorities reported 60,000 deaths from Covid-19 in hospitals. In China, since the authorities abandoned the zero-covid policy in early December, 60,000 people have died in hospitals with a diagnosis of Covid-19 by mid-January.
These are official government figures, but experts believe the real number is much higher because it does not include those who died at home. It has also been reported that many doctors in China have been encouraged not to report COVID-19 as the primary cause of death.
“Although our situation is much better now than it was three years ago when the pandemic hit, the strain on the collective strengths of the global response has increased again,” noted the WHO chief. According to Gebreyesus, this is due to the insufficient number of vaccinated people worldwide, limited and inequitable access to antiviral drugs, and the fact that healthcare systems in many countries are overwhelmed by the influx of patients – not only with COVID, but also with other respiratory diseases.
The WHO chief specifically cited “streams of pseudoscience and disinformation” as one of the reasons why Covid-19 continues to pose a serious challenge to health professionals and international organizations trying to stop the pandemic.
We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. The number of offers should remain: episodes. End of story Podcast advertising Until the new wave of COVID began in China, hope for a quick end to the pandemic was supported by the fact that many countries, especially those with high vaccination rates, had abandoned masks and quarantine measures and were trying to manage COVID in a routine manner.
Spain remains one of the few countries in Europe where the wearing of masks is mandatory in transportation. As of February 7, this rule will be lifted.
Strict quarantine rules have been in place in Japan, where COVID has been classified as a highly infectious disease. On Friday, officials announced that as of May 8, it will be classified as a less dangerous disease, like the flu. This means that the authorities will not insist on restricting the movement of citizens with a positive diagnosis and those who have been in contact with them, and will relax the rules for mass events.
At the same time, due to the new wave of COVID-19 in China, authorities around the world began imposing restrictions on arrivals from China in January. The United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Canada, and Israel have implemented mandatory testing for arrivals from China.