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

Covid-19 is more likely to be downgraded from a public well being emergency of worldwide concern this yr, because it shifts to the same stage of threat as flu, in response to the World Well being Group (WHO).

“We’re coming to that time the place we will take a look at covid-19 in the identical means we take a look at seasonal influenza,” mentioned the WHO’s Michael Ryan at a press convention immediately. “A risk to well being, a virus that may proceed to kill. However a virus that’s not disrupting our society or disrupting our hospital programs.”

WHO director basic Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement on the press convention. “We’re actually in a significantly better place now than we’ve been at any time throughout the pandemic,” he mentioned.

The WHO declared covid-19 a public health emergency of international 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 mentioned the phenomenon had grow to be 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.

Whereas the coronavirus remains to be extensively circulating, it’s now much less more likely to trigger severe sickness, as most individuals have had it a minimum of 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 primary time, the weekly variety of reported deaths up to now 4 weeks has been decrease than after we first used the phrase ‘pandemic’ three years in the past,” mentioned Ghebreyesus. “I’m assured that, this yr, we can say that covid-19 is over as a public well being emergency of worldwide concern. We’re not there but.”

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

“We’re on a optimistic trajectory,” mentioned Ryan. “The virus will signify much less and fewer of a risk to society, the place surges in virus transmission wouldn’t be related to larger charges of hospital admission,” mentioned Ryan. “We’ve begun to see that within the final six months, the place a surge in an infection has not been related to sustained strain on the well being system, as a result of charges of vaccination are excessive sufficient.”

Ryan added, nonetheless, that many nations nonetheless had gaps in vaccination protection and in entry to antiviral remedies for many who are medically weak. “We’ve bought to guard communities who may be weak to extreme illness,” he mentioned. And if the virus evolves to grow to be extra virulent, “all bets are off”, he mentioned.

Nonetheless, Stephen Griffin on the College 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 towards the tens of millions of clinically weak individuals, particularly these unable to make efficient vaccine responses,” he says.