The World Health Organization (WHO) is optimistic that the global health emergency declared due to the coronavirus pandemic will be lifted in 2023.
“There is hope that next year we can say there is no more pandemic,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva on Wednesday.
However, he also added: “The virus is here to stay.”
It is true that the world has the tools to deal with it: vaccines, medicines and standards of action, he said.
Monkeypox cases have dropped by about 90 percent and Uganda has been free of new Ebola cases for some time, Tedros said.
Speaking of the year 2023, he said, “There are many reasons for hope and many reasons for concern.”
Among other things, he cited impending famine, especially in Africa, poor sanitation in many places, unhealthy diets, malaria and tuberculosis.
It is true that WHO cannot declare that the pandemic is over. The term “pandemic” is not even in WHO’s collection of professional tools – the International Health Regulations.
It can only raise a “public health emergency of international concern”. This regime is described in the regulations and was announced at the end of 2020 due to the coronavirus.
