Oct 19 (Reuters) – The World Health Organization said on
Wednesday that COVID-19 remains a global emergency, nearly three
years after it was first declared as one.
The WHO’s emergency committee first made the declaration for
COVID-19 on Jan 30, 2020. Such a determination can help
accelerate research, funding and international public health
measures to contain a disease.
The UN-agency has said in recent months that while cases are
falling in parts of the world, countries still need to maintain
their vigilance and push to get their most vulnerable
populations vaccinated.
“Although the public perception is that the pandemic is over
in some parts of the world, it remains a public health event
that continues to adversely and strongly affect the health of
the world’s population,” the WHO’s committee said.
It noted that even though the number of weekly deaths are
the lowest since the pandemic began, they still remain high
compared to other viruses.
“This pandemic has surprised us before and very well may
again,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told
reporters.
(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru and Jennifer Rigby in
London; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
