The global health body, however, warned that the declaration does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat, stressing that the virus is here to stay, still killing, and changing, adding that the risk remains of new variants emerging that cause new surges in cases and deaths.”
Consequently, following the advice offered by the Committee, the Director-Director of the WHO, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, during a news conference in Geneva, declared that the COVID-19 no longer constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern . The Director General, who observed that the decision had not been made lightly, said, “For the past year, the WHO-led Emergency Committee had been carefully examining the data, on the right time to lower the alarm. For over 12 months, the pandemic “has been on a downward trend, with immunity increasing due to the highly effective vaccines developed in record time to fight the disease, and infections. Death rates have decreased and the pressure on once overwhelmed health systems, has eased.
Ghebreyesus announced the publication of the 2023-2025 COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan which is designed to guide countries in transitioning to long-term management of COVID-19 which outlines important actions for countries to consider for five areas: collaborative surveillance, community protection, safe and scalable care, access to countermeasures, and emergency coordination.
It recognised that while the global risk assessment remains high, there is evidence of reducing risks to human health driven mainly by high population-level immunity from infection, vaccination, or both; consistent virulence of currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sub-lineages compared to previously circulating Omicron sub-lineages; and improved clinical case management.