Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday declared that Covid-19 pandemic is over as a global health emergency.
The announcement was made by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, while addressing a media briefing on Covid-19 and global health issues in Geneva.
“It is, therefore, with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency. However, that does not mean Covid-19 is over as a global health threat. Last week, Covid-19 claimed a life every three minutes – and that’s just the deaths we know about,” he said.
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“As we speak, thousands of people around the world are fighting for their lives in intensive care units. And millions more continue to live with the debilitating effects of post Covid-19 conditions,” he added.
The WHO had declared Covid-19 as a global emergency in January 2020.
Tedros said 1,221 days ago, the WHO learned of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China.
“On the 30th January 2020, on the advice of an Emergency Committee convened under the International Health Regulations, I declared a public health emergency of international concern over the global outbreak of Covid-19 – the highest level of alarm under international law,” Tedros said.
He said at that time, outside China there were fewer than 100 reported [Covid-19] cases, and no reported deaths.
In the three years since then, Covid-19 has turned our world upside down. Almost 7 million deaths have been reported to WHO, but we know the toll is several times higher – at least 20 million,” Tedros noted.
“What this news means is that it is time for countries to transition from emergency mode to managing Covid-19 alongside other infectious diseases,” he added.
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