The Politico newspaper estimated that the organization’s statement represents a major turning point in the global response to the crisis, which has claimed the lives of nearly 7 million people and caused an estimated 65 million cases of “Covid 19”.
The decision to end the highest global health alert level comes more than 3 years after it was first announced on January 30, 2020, as the coronavirus spread outside of China and WHO officials around the world around became more and more panicked.
However, health experts believe, according to their interview with “Sky News Arabia”, that despite the end of the global emergency, Corona and its variants are not over yet, and therefore consideration should be given to the fact that the health authorities take care to monitor the epidemiological situation and the condition of the injured, in particular the most vulnerable, dangerous groups such as the elderly and people with chronic diseases.
What are the reasons for the WHO’s decision?
Friday’s decision by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus follows a recommendation from a WHO expert panel that found the situation no longer meets the criteria to be classified as an emergency. public health of international concern. “It is with great hope that I declare the end of (COVID-19) a global health emergency, Ghebreyesus said. Although there is no officially agreed definition of a pandemic, a pandemic emergency Public Health of International Concern is an official designation that leads to certain actions and recommendations under the International Health Regulations on Surveillance, Reporting and Response to let its guard down or send a message to its citizens,” the director of the global health. that (Covid 19) is no longer a matter of concern.” are lower than during the worst waves of the epidemic. But even with the decline in infections and deaths, the WHO has been reluctant to withdraw a “d ’emergency’, as the committee noted at its meeting last January that there were still a large number of deaths from the virus compared to other infectious respiratory diseases and uncertainty about the emergence of variants Globally, there have been more than 765 million cases of Corona, in When Europe was the most recorded case with 276 million WHO data showed that the death rate from the disease has slowed from a peak of over 100,000 per week in January 2021 to just over 3,500 per week ending April 24, 2023.
The effect of the end of the state of emergency
The WHO is currently setting up a review committee to develop long-term recommendations for countries on how to handle the coronavirus pandemic on an ongoing basis.
“The world is ready to move into the next phase,” said GAVI CEO Seth Berkeley, adding, “But while today marks a historic milestone, we must also be clear about the need to continue to protect our people. the most vulnerable, as we do with disease.” other preventable killers.
In an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, clinical consultant in drug treatment of infectious diseases, Dirar Balawi, said that many countries had ended the global health emergency of the Corona pandemic some time ago before the outbreak. announcement of the organization, specifying the consequences of this in a number of points, including:
The global health declaration means that the pandemic is over and this virus has become endemic, and countries have become more capable of planning and responding to this virus. There is no more pressure on the global health system, as there was at the start of the pandemic, and there is a sufficient level of community immunity, and a large epidemic does not occur. There are countries that were waiting for the declaration of global health, and these are developing countries with low and medium economies, which receive international aid, and therefore these countries will now announce the end of the state of emergency. The pandemic has been contained, but it is still continuing, and the measures taken by countries to monitor the epidemiological situation should be taken into account. Many societies have been lax in preventive and precautionary measures to deal with Corona, and that does not mean that the virus does not exist, because it still exists, just as many groups suffer from low immunity and can become infected and exposed to serious repercussions. Care should be taken to obtain vaccines for people with low immunity and those being treated for chronic conditions.
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