Covid-19 threat expected to become on par with flu this year, says WHO

Covid-19 is prone to be downgraded from a public well being emergency of worldwide concern this 12 months, because it shifts to the same stage of threat as flu, in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO).

“We’re coming to that point where we can look at covid-19 in the same way we look at seasonal influenza,” stated the WHO’s Michael Ryan at a press convention right this moment. “A threat to health, a virus that will continue to kill. But a virus that is not disrupting our society or disrupting our hospital systems.”

WHO director normal Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement on the press convention. “We’re certainly in a much better position now than we have been at any time during the pandemic,” he stated.

The WHO declared covid-19 a public well being emergency of worldwide concern, its highest stage of risk, in January 2020, after coronavirus circumstances had been steadily rising in China and had been confirmed in 18 different nations. Two months later, the organisation stated the phenomenon had change into a pandemic, normally taken to imply that an sickness is spreading in a number of nations, though there is no such thing as a universally agreed definition.

While the coronavirus remains to be extensively circulating, it’s now much less prone to trigger severe sickness, as most individuals have had it not less than as soon as, many have been vaccinated a number of occasions and the present omicron variants are much less virulent than some previous variants.

“It’s very pleasing to see that, for the first time, the weekly number of reported deaths in the past four weeks has been lower than when we first used the word ‘pandemic’ three years ago,” stated Ghebreyesus. “I’m confident that, this year, we will be able to say that covid-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern. We are not there yet.”

A WHO committee has been reviewing the factors that might imply the risk from covid-19 might be downgraded, however hasn’t but reached a call.

“We are on a positive trajectory,” stated Ryan. “The virus will represent less and less of a threat to society, where surges in virus transmission would not be associated with higher rates of hospital admission,” stated Ryan. “We’ve begun to see that in the last six months, where a surge in infection has not been associated with sustained pressure on the health system, because rates of vaccination are high enough.”

Ryan added, nonetheless, that many nations nonetheless had gaps in vaccination protection and in entry to antiviral remedies for many who are medically susceptible. “We’ve got to protect communities who might be vulnerable to severe disease,” he stated. And if the virus evolves to change into extra virulent, “all bets are off”, he stated.

However, Stephen Griffin on the University of Leeds, UK, who’s a member of iSAGE, an unbiased group of scientists, says the WHO’s plans are untimely. “Most worrying is the continued isolation and discrimination against the millions of clinically vulnerable people, especially those unable to make effective vaccine responses,” he says.