World Health Organization: COVID still a global health emergency
Cases reported to WHO have risen by 30% in last two weeks
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that COVID-19 remains a global emergency, nearly 2-1/2 years after it was first declared.
The Emergency Committee, made up of independent experts, said in a statement that rising cases, ongoing viral evolution and pressure on health services in a number of countries meant that the situation was still an emergency.
Cases reported to WHO had risen by 30% in the last fortnight, although increased population immunity, largely from vaccines, had seen a "decoupling" of cases from hospitalizations and deaths, the committee's statement said.
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Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, seen here at the 75th World Health Assembly at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 22, 2022, said "COVID-19 is nowhere near over." (Reuters/Denis Balibouse/File Photo)
"COVID-19 is nowhere near over," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference from Geneva after the announcement. "As the virus pushes at us, we must push back."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The U.N. health agency first declared the highest level of alert, known as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, for COVID-19 on Jan. 30, 2020. Such a determination can help accelerate research, funding and international public health measures to contain a disease.