Dubai Telegraph - Covid no longer a global health emergency: WHO

EUR -
AED 3.82663
AFN 70.961809
ALL 98.138672
AMD 405.653176
ANG 1.877183
AOA 951.190967
ARS 1044.167695
AUD 1.599646
AWG 1.877898
AZN 1.768925
BAM 1.955574
BBD 2.102957
BDT 124.465633
BGN 1.955296
BHD 0.392555
BIF 3076.644867
BMD 1.04183
BND 1.403838
BOB 7.197169
BRL 6.043616
BSD 1.04158
BTN 87.914552
BWP 14.229358
BYN 3.408607
BYR 20419.862965
BZD 2.099458
CAD 1.456197
CDF 2991.093261
CHF 0.930624
CLF 0.036923
CLP 1018.831698
CNY 7.545955
CNH 7.559141
COP 4573.372102
CRC 530.538761
CUC 1.04183
CUP 27.608488
CVE 110.252274
CZK 25.306722
DJF 185.47859
DKK 7.457725
DOP 62.772754
DZD 139.835859
EGP 51.650195
ERN 15.627446
ETB 127.508482
FJD 2.371152
FKP 0.822334
GBP 0.831137
GEL 2.854575
GGP 0.822334
GHS 16.4561
GIP 0.822334
GMD 73.969495
GNF 8977.963687
GTQ 8.040072
GYD 217.904848
HKD 8.10981
HNL 26.320962
HRK 7.431641
HTG 136.724218
HUF 410.920048
IDR 16610.464601
ILS 3.856615
IMP 0.822334
INR 87.968197
IQD 1364.442504
IRR 43834.985936
ISK 145.522363
JEP 0.822334
JMD 165.930847
JOD 0.738756
JPY 161.24407
KES 134.88443
KGS 90.11281
KHR 4193.515949
KMF 492.261294
KPW 937.646374
KRW 1463.260366
KWD 0.320727
KYD 0.868
KZT 520.05997
LAK 22878.359185
LBP 93271.23384
LKR 303.145008
LRD 187.9983
LSL 18.79533
LTL 3.076253
LVL 0.630192
LYD 5.086413
MAD 10.478091
MDL 18.997807
MGA 4861.438851
MKD 61.522899
MMK 3383.822366
MNT 3540.137411
MOP 8.350936
MRU 41.443216
MUR 48.810137
MVR 16.1068
MWK 1806.091526
MXN 21.300719
MYR 4.654898
MZN 66.582998
NAD 18.79533
NGN 1767.669283
NIO 38.325576
NOK 11.541432
NPR 140.663763
NZD 1.785677
OMR 0.400944
PAB 1.04158
PEN 3.949544
PGK 4.193516
PHP 61.40439
PKR 289.239713
PLN 4.332887
PYG 8131.061444
QAR 3.798562
RON 4.980248
RSD 116.991496
RUB 108.510536
RWF 1421.83588
SAR 3.911475
SBD 8.734237
SCR 14.271984
SDG 626.658476
SEK 11.49581
SGD 1.402926
SHP 0.822334
SLE 23.680862
SLL 21846.653733
SOS 595.231293
SRD 36.978666
STD 21563.772237
SVC 9.113948
SYP 2617.628337
SZL 18.788831
THB 36.0395
TJS 11.09252
TMT 3.646404
TND 3.309018
TOP 2.440069
TRY 35.958741
TTD 7.074183
TWD 33.946456
TZS 2770.580196
UAH 43.090026
UGX 3848.555767
USD 1.04183
UYU 44.294887
UZS 13362.457591
VES 48.506696
VND 26482.270241
VUV 123.688121
WST 2.908362
XAF 655.881293
XAG 0.033274
XAU 0.000384
XCD 2.815597
XDR 0.792309
XOF 655.881293
XPF 119.331742
YER 260.379266
ZAR 18.844783
ZMK 9377.714007
ZMW 28.772679
ZWL 335.468752
  • BCE

    0.0900

    26.77

    +0.34%

  • BCC

    3.4200

    143.78

    +2.38%

  • RIO

    -0.2200

    62.35

    -0.35%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    6.79

    -0.15%

  • NGG

    1.0296

    63.11

    +1.63%

  • SCS

    0.2300

    13.27

    +1.73%

  • RBGPF

    59.2400

    59.24

    +100%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    33.96

    +0.77%

  • CMSC

    0.0320

    24.672

    +0.13%

  • CMSD

    0.0150

    24.46

    +0.06%

  • VOD

    0.1323

    8.73

    +1.52%

  • BP

    0.2000

    29.72

    +0.67%

  • BTI

    0.4000

    37.38

    +1.07%

  • AZN

    1.3700

    65.63

    +2.09%

  • RELX

    0.9900

    46.75

    +2.12%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    13.21

    -0.15%

Covid no longer a global health emergency: WHO
Covid no longer a global health emergency: WHO / Photo: STR - AFP/File

Covid no longer a global health emergency: WHO

The Covid-19 pandemic, which killed millions of people and wreaked economic and social havoc, no longer constitutes a global health emergency, the WHO said Friday, warning that the threat remained.

Text size:

It is "with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency", World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

The move came after the WHO's independent emergency committee on the Covid crisis agreed it no longer merited the organisation's highest alert level and "advised that it is time to transition to long-term management of the COVID-19 pandemic".

But the danger was not over, according to Tedros, who estimated Covid had killed "at least 20 million" people -- about three times the nearly seven million deaths officially recorded.

"This virus is here to stay. It is still killing, and it's still changing," he said.

"The worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that Covid-19 is nothing to worry about."

- Never again -

The UN health agency first declared the so-called public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) over the crisis on January 30, 2020.

That was weeks after the mysterious new viral disease was first detected in China and when fewer than 100 cases and no deaths had been reported outside that country.

But it was only after Tedros described the worsening Covid situation as a pandemic on March 11, 2020, that many countries woke up to the danger.

By then, the SARS CoV-2 virus which causes the disease had already begun its deadly rampage around the globe.

"One of the greatest tragedies of Covid-19 is that it didn't have to be this way," Tedros said, decrying that "a lack of coordination, a lack of equity and a lack of solidarity" meant "lives were lost that should not have been".

"We must promise ourselves and our children and grandchildren that we will never make those mistakes again."

Even though Covid deaths globally have plunged 95 percent since January, the disease remains a major killer.

Last week alone "Covid-19 claimed a life every three minutes", Tedros said, "and that's just the deaths we know about."

"The emergency phase is over, but Covid is not," agreed Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on Covid-19.

- 'We can't forget' -

Vaccines, which were developed at record speed and started rolling out by late 2020, remain effective at preventing severe disease and death, despite new and more infectious Covid variants that have appeared.

To date, 13.3 billion doses of Covid vaccines have been administered, with 82 percent of adults over 60 having received the initial jabs.

However greed and gaping inequities surfaced, as wealthy countries hoarded the jabs and poorer ones struggled for months to get hold of a single dose.

An antivax movement on steroids and massive misinformation campaigns over social media meanwhile turned vaccination into a charged political issue.

The pandemic also exposed staggering inequality in access to healthcare and services, from the long lines of Brazilians waiting for oxygen for loved ones gasping for air, to the funeral pyres that crammed New Delhi's sidewalks as the bodies piled up in early 2021.

"We can't forget those fire pyres, we can't forget the graves that were dug," Van Kerkhove said, her voice catching with emotion. "I won't forget them."

- Origins a mystery -

Tedros has warned of the ongoing impact of Long Covid, which provokes numerous and often severe and debilitating symptoms that can drag for years.

This condition has been estimated to impact one in 10 people who contract Covid, suggesting that hundreds of millions could need longer-term care, he cautioned.

The world is currently striving to put in place measures to help avert future global health catastrophes.

The virus was first detected in late 2019 in Wuhan China, but it remains unclear how and where it first began spreading among humans.

The issue, which has been heavily politicised, has proved divisive for the scientific community, which is split between a theory that the virus jumped naturally to humans from animals and one maintaining that the virus likely leaked from a Wuhan laboratory -- a claim China angrily denies.

WHO and its member states have meanwhile launched discussions about an international treaty or something similar to draw lessons from the mistakes made and ensure the world reacts more effectively and equitably to the next one.

The question is not if, but when.

U.Siddiqui--DT