WHO: COVID-19 still a public health emergency of international concern

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 30) — COVID-19 still poses continued risk that warrants the highest level of global alert, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO on Monday said that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic “continues to constitute a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC),” its highest form of alert.

Meanwhile, it noted that the pandemic is “probably at a transition point” that requires careful management to “mitigate potential negative consequences.”

The United Nations body found that COVID-19 still causes more deaths than other respiratory infectious diseases, vaccine uptake is insufficient in low- and middle-income countries as well as among those at highest risk, and that there is uncertainty associated with emerging variants of COVID-19.

“Health systems are currently struggling with COVID-19 and caring for patients with influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), health workforce shortages, and fatigued health workers,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized in the report.

The WHO added that vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics have been and remain critical but “too many countries [are] unable to provide these tools to the populations most in need, older people and health workers.”

But it acknowledged that the virus may no longer be as dangerous today as it was in 2020, when it first began to spread rapidly around the world.

According to the WHO, “the COVID-19 pandemic may be approaching an inflection point,” noting that countries have achieved higher levels of population immunity.

“Long-term public health action is critically needed,” the WHO said in its report. “While eliminating this virus from human and animal reservoirs is highly unlikely, mitigation of its devastating impact on morbidity and mortality is achievable and should continue to be a prioritized goal.”

With that, the international body issued temporary recommendations to all nations:

1. Maintain the pace for COVID-19 vaccination to reach 100% coverage of high-priority groups, including planning for integration of vaccination as a component of life-course immunization programs.

2. Improve reporting of COVID-19 surveillance data to WHO.

3. Increase the use of medicinal countermeasures, such as COVID-19 vaccines, and ensure their long-term availability.

4. Maintain strong national response capacity and prepare for future events to avoid a panic-neglect cycle.

5. Boost risk communication and local community engagement to tackle mis- and dis-information about public health measures.

6. Continue to adjust any remaining international travel-related measures, and “to not require proof of vaccination against COVID-19 as a prerequisite for international travel.”

7. Keep supporting research for improved vaccines against COVID-19.

Following a meeting of the international COVID-19 emergency committee on Jan. 27, the WHO made its decision three years after it declared COVID-19 as a PHEIC.

The virus, which affected almost every country worldwide, has struck more than 752 million people and caused the death of over 6.8 million others.

For the Philippines, the pronouncement came exactly three years since the country recorded its first case of the virus.

The nationwide tally now stands at over 4 million confirmed COVID-19 cases with 3.9 million recoveries and more than 65,000 deaths. 

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