WHO organization declares covid cases are declining?

The 21st centuries first global viral outbreak and how governments around the globe reacted to this unprecedented event

Despite the fact that the virus's death toll has dropped to its lowest level since the epidemic began, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a worldwide public health emergency on Wednesday.

According to WHO data, moreover, 22,000 people died from Covid in the week ending April 10, the lowest number since March 30, 2020. Covid was originally designated a global health emergency by the WHO on Jan. 30, 2020, a little over a month after the virus was discovered in Wuhan, China.

Although lowering Covid mortality is wonderful news, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that certain countries are still seeing an increase in cases. According to Tedros, a WHO committee unanimously concluded last week that Covid remains a public health emergency.

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"This is not the time to relax our vigilance; rather, it is the time to strive even more to save lives," Tedros stated during a news conference in Geneva. "Specifically, this entails investing so that Covid-19 tools are spread fairly and health systems are strengthened at the same time."

The WHO has urged world leaders to guarantee that 70 percent of their people had been vaccinated against Covid by the middle of the year. According to the organization, 75 countries have vaccinated fewer than 40% of their populations, and 21 countries have vaccinated less than 10% of their people as of March.

According to the WHO's most recent epidemiological data, every area is reporting a decrease in cases and deaths. For the week ending April 10, the world recorded 7.3 million new infections, down 24% from the previous week and the lowest level since late December, when the highly dangerous omicron form was sweeping the globe.

The much more contagious omicron BA.2 subvariant, on the other hand, has spurred fresh epidemics in Europe and China, as well as, increasingly, in the United States. While the BA.2 pandemic in Europe has almost subsided, China is seeing its biggest outbreak since 2020. China has put much of Shanghai, which has a population of around 25 million people, on lockdown.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States recorded more than 30,000 new illnesses on Monday, a 20% rise over the previous week. Infections and hospitalizations, on the other hand, are still more than 90% lower than they were during the winter omicron wave in the United States.

Dr. Didier Houssin, head of the WHO's worldwide health regulations emergency committee, remarked, "It's usually simpler to proclaim a pandemic than it is to undeclare one." The committee offers recommendations on whether or not the spread of a virus is a worldwide emergency. Houssin said the group is working on criteria to decide when the WHO may declare the global health emergency finished, including epidemiological data and the degree of international help needed to contain the virus.