JAKARTA - Head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday he "hopefully" the COVID-19 pandemic will no longer be considered a global emergency next year.
His comments on briefings with the media came as China exposed a rigid "zero-COVID" policy and allowed people to live with the virus, raising fears the country with the world's number two economy faces a spike in infections.
"We hope next year to declare COVID-19 no longer a global health emergency," he said, launching Xinhua December 15.
However, he continued, however, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause behind the COVID-19 pandemic, will not be lost.
"This will remain, and all countries need to learn to manage it along with other respiratory diseases including influenza and RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus), both of which are now circulating intensively in many countries," Tedros said.
He further explained that one of the most important lessons of this pandemic is that all countries need to strengthen their public health systems to quickly prepare, prevent, detect, and respond to outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics.
Another important lesson is the need for stronger cooperation in collaboration, rather than competition and confusion that marks a global response to COVID-19.
It is known, WHO meets every few months to decide whether the new coronavirus is still a "community health emergency that is of international concern" (PHEIC) or not.
The designation is intended to trigger coordinated international responses and could open funding to collaborate in vaccine sharing and treatment.
Asked about the conditions required for the end of PHEIC, WHO senior epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said: "There is still a lot of work to be done," as quoted by Reuters.
"If there is a large part of the population that has not been vaccinated, the world still has a lot of work to do," WHO Emergency Director Mike Ryan said of the same issue.
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