“I am confident that at some point this year we will be able to say that COVID-19 has ended as a public health emergency of international concern and as a pandemic,” Ghebreyesus said. TASS .
The WHO chief also pointed out that countries are now in a much better position than ever during a pandemic. Thus, for the first time, the weekly number of reported deaths is lower than when the WHO first used the word “pandemic” in relation to COVID-19.
Recall that on December 31, 2019, the WHO was informed of the first cases of pneumonia caused by an unknown pathogen, on January 3, Chinese services reported 44 cases of pneumonia in Wuhan. The pathogen turned out to be a new coronavirus (now known as SARS-CoV-2, formerly under the temporary name 2019-nCoV). Prior to this, this pathogen was not present in the human population.
The WHO declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
The most common symptoms of the disease are fever, fatigue and dry cough. The virus is capable of infecting various organs through direct infection or through the body’s immune response. The most common complication of transferred coronavirus is pneumonia, which can lead to acute distress syndrome and subsequent acute respiratory failure. Complications also include septic shock and venous thromboembolism.
Nearly 7 million people fell victim to the coronavirus worldwide during the pandemic years. One in ten patients dies from the disease. In total, around 700 million people around the world have been sick with the coronavirus.
