The COVID-19 pandemic is “far from over”, World Health Organization (WHO) Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced Tuesday at a press conference in Geneva.
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“As the virus breaks through, we need to push it back,” Dr. Tedros said, adding, “The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over.”
“As hospitalizations and transmission of COVID-19 increase, governments must deploy tried and tested measures like mask-wearing, improved ventilation, and testing and treatment protocols,” he added.
He spoke on the sidelines of WHO’s release of the results of the latest COVID-19 Emergency Committee meeting, which was held last Friday.
The UN agency has thus announced that the COVID-19 pandemic will be maintained at the rank of “public health emergency of international concern”, the organization’s highest level of alert, following a unanimous decision by the Committee. .
The Committee points to the decline in screening and genomic sequencing, which make it “increasingly difficult” to assess the impact of COVID-19 variants, and underlines the “inadequacy of current surveillance” of the pandemic .
The Committee notes the recent increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in different regions of the world, as well as the lack of implementation of appropriate public health measures in regions affected by a resurgence of cases.