After three years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that COVID is no longer a health emergency. The announcement came after the organization’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee Meeting on May 4.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhamon Ghebreyeus said that the pandemic has been on a downward trend for over a year as immunity increased due to vaccination and infection and pressure has eased on the healthcare system.
“However, that does not mean COVID-19 is over as a health threat. Last week, COVID-19 claimed a life every three minutes- and that’s just the deaths we know about,” Ghebreyeus warned.
Is the Pandemic Over?
Although the WHO has declared that COVID is no longer an emergency, it is still a global threat. They are many countries that are far from endemic status. What’s more, a subvariant known as Arcturus is circulating in at least 31 countries, although it’s not considered to be particularly dangerous.
Katherine O’Brien, director of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals at WHO said that vaccines played a major role in reducing COVID’s emergency status.
“Vaccines have played a really important role in protecting populations,” O’Brien noted while maintaining the virus is far from over. “The work remains essential for the life-saving nature of vaccines,” she said.
Tedros released a 2023-2025 COVID Strategic Preparedness Response Plan in conjunction with the announcement which details how countries will manage COVID long-term. Three key areas include:
- Collaborative surveillance
- Community protection
- Access to countermeasures
- Emergency coordination
- Safe and scalable care
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist and technical lead for WHO’s COVID response team, acknowledged that Africa and other countries that are disproportionately affected by COVID must continue taking management measures to keep the virus under control.
“The worst thing to do is to dismantle systems,” Kerkhove noted.
Mortality Rates Reach an All Time Low
The WHO’s decision to remove COVID from emergency status was considered carefully. It was mainly based on the global mortality rate from COVID being at its lowest since the pandemic began.
And although COVID is not an emergency, experts are advising people to continue getting their vaccines as a primary line of defense. Dr. Gandhi recommends that immunocompromised people receive boosters every six months.
So what about masks?
“Unfortunately, masks do not work as well as we thought they would at the beginning of the pandemic, so vaccination really should be the mainstay of protection for those with immunocompromise,” Gandhi noted.