The World Health Organization on Monday released its findings after the 14th meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic, three years to the date after the WHO director-general determined the virus constituted an international public health emergency.
The panel found the pandemic may be nearing a point where higher levels of immunity can lower virus-related deaths.
The committee met last week to examine the state of the pandemic, and WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he concurred with the group’s determination that the event “continues to constitute a public health emergency of international concern.”
But the committee also found the COVID-19 pandemic is “probably at a transition point,” and Tedros subsequently said he “appreciates the advice of the Committee to navigate this transition carefully and mitigate the potential negative consequences.”
Experts noted that the world is much better positioned than when COVID-19 deaths peaked globally in early 2021, but added that weekly caseloads and death rates have again begun to creep upwards since December – with a notable amount attributed to China.
Of the nearly 40,000 COVID-19 deaths reported last week to the WHO, over half came from China.
Tedros warned that in the last eight weeks, at least 170,000 people have died around the world in connection with the coronavirus. He called for at-risk groups to be fully vaccinated, an increase in testing and early use of antivirals, an expansion of lab networks, and a fight against “misinformation” about the pandemic.
“We remain hopeful that in the coming year, the world will transition to a new phase in which we reduce hospitalizations and deaths to the lowest possible level,” he said.
Tedros’ comments came moments after WHO released findings of its emergency committee on the pandemic which reported that some 13.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered — with nearly 90% of health workers and more than four in five people over 60 years of age having completed the first series of jabs.
“The committee acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic may be approaching an inflexion point,” WHO said in a statement. Higher levels of immunity worldwide through vaccination or infection “may limit the impact” of the virus that causes COVID-19 on “morbidity and mortality,” the committee said.
“…There is little doubt that this virus will remain a permanently established pathogen in humans and animals for the foreseeable future,” it said. While Omicron versions are easily spread, “there has been a decoupling between infection and severe disease” compared to that of earlier variants.
Committee members cited “pandemic fatigue” and the increasing public perception that COVID-19 isn’t as much of a risk as it once was, leading to people to increasingly ignore or disregard health measures like mask-wearing and social distancing.
