COVID-19: End in sight, says WHO

The number of newly reported cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) has dropped, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed.

“We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic. We are not there yet, but the end is in sight,” WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Ghebreyesus noted at a virtual press conference on Wednesday.

He noted that as of last week, newly reported cases of the disease, which has killed over six million people, fell to the lowest level since March, 2020.

Ghebreyesus said; “We are in a winning position. But now is the worst time to stop running. Now is the time to run harder and make sure we crossed the line and reap the rewards of all our hard work.

“If we don’t take this opportunity now, we run the risk of more variants, more deaths, more disruption and more uncertainty so let’s seize this opportunity.” In a bid to help countries to do what is needed to eradicate the virus, the WHO published six policy briefs.

The global health organisation said the policy briefs were based on evidence and experiences of the last 32 months, outlining what works best to save lives, protect health systems, and avoid social and economic disruption.

“These policy briefs are an urgent call for governments to take a hard look at their policies, and strengthen them for COVID-19 and future pathogens with pandemic potential,” WHO boss said. He also urged nations to vaccinate 100 per cent of their high-risk groups and keep testing for the virus. The WHO warned of the possibility of future waves of the virus and said countries need to maintain adequate supplies of medical equipment and healthcare workers.

“We expect there to be future waves of infections, potentially at different time points throughout the world caused by different subvariants of Omicron or even different variants of concern,” said WHO’s senior epidemiologist, Maria Kerkhove. As of 19 September, 2022, global data by Worldometer shows that 617 268 283 infections and 6,530,900 deaths have been recorded.