The World Health Organization (WHO) has lifted the public health emergency of the coronavirus pandemic. “The pandemic has been following a declining trend for a year,” said WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, referring to increased immunity from vaccinations and infections. The decision does not have any concrete effects because each country determines its own protective measures.
When the WHO declared the corona health emergency on January 30, 2020, around 100 infections were known in around 20 countries outside of China, and no deaths. According to the WHO, around 765 million infections and a good 6.9 million deaths have now been reported worldwide. The number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher. According to the WHO, 38.4 million people in Germany were infected with the virus and 173,000 died.
The virus keeps circulating
The Sars-CoV-2 virus has not been defeated, Tedros emphasized. It continues to circulate in the world, is dangerous and can develop dangerous variants at any time. However, the WHO follows the recommendation of an independent committee of experts. He found that the number of deaths was falling, there were fewer stays in hospitals because of Covid-19, including fewer in intensive care units, and that people were protected to a high degree. Now the WHO says the world has good tools to protect people from the virus. In addition to vaccines and medicines, this also includes protection such as face masks or keeping your distance in crowded and poorly ventilated indoor spaces.
In Germany, the last nationwide mask requirements in the healthcare sector ended on April 7 of this year. Since the 1st of this month, the federal government’s Corona warning app has stopped issuing mutual warnings after contact with people who have tested positive.
According to WHO statistics, significantly fewer people are now experiencing a severe course of Covid-19 than at the beginning of the pandemic, when there were no vaccines and medicines. Nevertheless, from April 3 to 30 of this year alone, almost 2.8 million new infections and over 17,000 deaths were reported to the WHO. However, since there is hardly any testing in many countries, this is not considered an accurate picture of the situation.
Call der WHO
When the WHO declares a public health emergency, it wants to alert governments and the public to a serious threat. The organization then makes recommendations on how each individual government can respond. The WHO continues to appeal to governments not to get on with business as usual. For months she has been asking for more corona tests to be carried out and for viruses to be genetically examined. This is the only way to get an overview of the spread of possible new variants.
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The WHO has declared a public health emergency seven times since 2005 – officially a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (PHEIC). The coronavirus emergency was the second longest. The longest applies to polio and has existed since 2014. Since July 2022 there has also been a monkeypox emergency. Emergencies were also declared for influenza A virus H1N1 (2009-2010), Ebola in West Africa (2014-2016), Zika (2016) and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2019-2020).
(anw)
