The decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to end the maximum level of alert for the COVID-19 pandemic marks an “important step” in the fight against this disease, according to experts. However, we must not let our guard down, they warn.
Even though COVID-19 continues to claim one person’s life every three minutes globally, the spread of the virus is sufficiently under control to lift the maximum alert level, the WHO ruled on Friday.
“It is with great hope that I declare that COVID-19 is no longer a health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a morning press conference.
“A reassuring message”
This global wake-up call was triggered on January 30, 2020, a month after worrying cases of atypical pneumonia were detected first in the Chinese city of Wuhan and then elsewhere around the world. The WHO then sends the message that to respond to this public health crisis, “it takes international coordination”, recalls professor specializing in pandemic emergencies at McGill University, Joanne Liu, in an interview with the Duty Friday.
However, the initial response is weak in several countries, as well as in Quebec. It must be said that the WHO has triggered its highest level of alert seven times since 2009, in particular to deal with the Ebola virus disease, the Zika virus and the H1N1 flu. Diseases which, “locally”, “had not affected us too much”, recalls Mme Liu.
It will therefore be necessary to wait until March 11, 2020, when the WHO uses the term “pandemic” for the first time to describe the health crisis of COVID-19, for many countries to move and put in place health restrictions. In Quebec, the state of emergency is triggered on March 13. In the following days, the Legault government announced a series of containment measures, first targeting people aged 70 and over, then many public places, in the hope of limiting the spread of the virus. All indoor and outdoor gatherings are then prohibited from March 21, 2020.
However, the development of effective vaccines against COVID-19 has since allowed many countries to slow the spread of the virus, opening the door to a reopening of the economy and the resumption of many social activities.
The announcement of the end of the WHO’s maximum alert level on Friday therefore represents “a reassuring message” for the many countries which have gone through a difficult period in recent years, notes the virologist and professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UQAM, Benoit Barbeau. “That does not mean that the pandemic is over, however,” he tempers nevertheless.
According to official WHO data, more than 6.9 million lives have been claimed by COVID-19 so far. However, this assessment, which is based on the deaths officially reported by the countries, represents only a fraction of the impacts of this deadly wave. In fact, it is probably some 20 million people who would have lost their lives due to the pandemic, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus raised on Friday.
“Collective amnesia”
The head of the WHO thus underlined the importance that the announcement of the end of the use of the highest level of alert for COVID-19 be interpreted as a reason to “let our guard down” and to send “the message” to the population that “COVID-19 is nothing to worry about”.
However, this is precisely what is likely to happen, fears Ms. Liu. “It is clear that for many people, it will be interpreted as if the pandemic is over,” she says. “There is such a deep desire for collective amnesia that I fear that we will not do the exercise of learning” from this pandemic, fears the former president of Doctors Without Borders. However, “we must not drop everything,” she insists.
Joanne Liu thus underlines the importance of the population maintaining certain habits acquired during the pandemic, in particular that of wearing a mask in the office when you have a cold, washing your hands regularly and “working from home when you are sick”. , she lists.
The Government of Quebec, for its part, should make sure to improve the ventilation of schools and other public places. “You have to finish the job and finish it well,” says the expert.
Caroline Quach, pediatrician and microbiologist-infectiologist at the CHU Sainte-Justine, believes for her part that we must continue to adequately monitor the evolution of COVID-19, which Quebec continues to do by focusing on an analysis of wastewater. in many of its major urban centers. “The only thing we don’t know is if countries decide to stop monitoring, are we going to be able to detect a wave of a new, more virulent variant? », asks the expert.
“We must always be on the lookout for the arrival of new sub-variants”, also notes Benoit Barbeau, who calls not to “lower our guard” as regards the monitoring of this virus. “We could still have surprises. »