The COVID-19 pandemic is “far from over,” the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency committee said on Tuesday, calling on countries to recognize all vaccines approved by the agency.
This emergency committee on COVID-19, chaired by Frenchman Didier Houssin, meets every three months to take stock of the situation.
Following his last meeting last week, he released a statement on Tuesday in which he stressed that “While progress has been made through increased use of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, the analysis of the current situation and forecast models indicate that the pandemic is far from over ”.
It is this same committee which, at its second meeting on January 30, 2020, had advised the Director-General of the WHO to declare a public health emergency of international concern, the highest level of alert for the epidemic. . What he had done.
In its statement released Tuesday, the committee said it had decided last week “unanimously that the pandemic is still an extraordinary event that continues to affect the health of populations around the world, presents a risk of international spread and disruption of the world. international traffic, and requires a coordinated international response ”.
In its recommendations to states, the committee remains opposed to the principle of proof of vaccination for international travel, given the inequitable distribution of vaccines around the world.
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He also asks states to “recognize all vaccines that have received authorization for emergency use” from the WHO.
So far, the WHO has approved the two messenger RNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, the two Chinese vaccines from Sinopharm and Sinovac, the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, as well as various versions of the vaccine. AstraZeneca.
A decision is expected very soon for the Covaxin vaccine developed by the Indian laboratory Bharat Biotech.