The director of the World Well being Group (WHO) introduced on Friday that he’s “confident” the COVID-19 pandemic will finish in 2023.
Director-Normal Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the feedback to reporters at a media briefing in Geneva.
“We are certainly in a much better position now than we have been at any time during the pandemic,” Dr. Ghebreyesus mentioned.
He famous that previously 4 weeks, the weekly variety of reported deaths has been decrease than it was earlier than the pandemic was declared in March 2020.
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“I am confident that this year, we will be able to say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern,” he added.
COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to trend downward worldwide.
As of March 6, weekly deaths stood at 5,048 globally.
That’s a decrease of more than 26% from the prior week — and down from a peak of 102,000 deaths in January 2021, per data from WHO.
Weekly cases of COVID-19 are down to 812,255 globally, a 21.65% decrease over the prior week. They peaked at 44.3 million in December 2022.
“Last week, there were still more than 5,000 reported deaths.”
In the U.S., as of March 15, weekly cases were down to 149,955, after peaking at 5.6 million on Jan. 19, 2022, per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Weekly deaths in the country were at 1,706, down from an all-time peak of 23,478 on Jan. 13, 2021 and another surge of 17,357 on Feb. 2, 2022.
‘We are not there yet’
Nonetheless, regardless of its optimistic prediction, the WHO is just not fairly able to announce the top of the pandemic at this exact second in time.
“We are not there yet. Last week, there were still more than 5,000 reported deaths,” Dr. Ghebreyesus mentioned in the course of the briefing.
“That’s 5,000 too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated.”
Dr. Ghebreyesus additionally careworn the necessity to decide how the pandemic started.
“Last Sunday, WHO was made aware of data published on the GISAID database in late January, and taken down again recently,” he mentioned.
“The data, from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, relates to samples taken at the Huanan market in Wuhan in 2020.”
Dr. Ghebreyesus mentioned that whereas this specific knowledge didn’t present a “definitive answer” to the pandemic’s origins, all info is vital in reaching that purpose.
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“These data could have — and should have — been shared three years ago,” he continued. “We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data, and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results. Understanding how the pandemic began remains both a moral and scientific imperative.”
“We are certainly in a much better position now than we have been at any time during the pandemic.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, scientific professor of medication at NYU Langone Medical Heart in New York Metropolis and a Fox Information medical contributor, mentioned this weekend that he questions the WHO’s hesitancy to sign the top of the worldwide emergency regardless of the weekly COVID dying rely being decrease than pre-pandemic.
“Under the heavy influence of China, WHO leadership actions have been erratic at best, delaying calling it a pandemic for almost two months after it was spreading widely and failing at getting China to be open and transparent about origins,” Dr. Siegel informed Fox Information Digital in an interview.
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“The pandemic has revealed WHO at the highest levels to be woefully inadequate.”
In January 2023, President Joe Biden introduced that he would finish the COVID emergency on Might 11.
He had beforehand declared the pandemic to be “over” in September 2022.
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