Geneva, April 13 (EFE) .- The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today its decision to maintain the spread of covid-19 as an international health emergency or pandemic because “this is not the time to lower our guard” , but rather that countries continue preparing to face this type of crisis.
The director general of the organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the WHO Emergency Committee (a body made up of independent scientists) has recommended not changing the alert level in relation to covid in view of the fact that the virus continues to be transmitted in a intense.
Likewise, its evolution is unpredictable and mortality remains at high levels, he added. In this context, Tedros indicated that efforts must continue so that vaccines, treatments and other tools developed to face the pandemic are distributed equitably between and within countries, and that progress is made in the vaccination of the elderly. 65 years, particularly in Africa.
Filling the gaps that remain in access to vaccines “is the best way to protect ourselves from future outbreaks,” he told a news conference.
The chairman of the WHO Emergency Committee, Didier Houssin, argued that “the time has not come to relax about this virus”, nor to lose sight of the importance of continuing to carry out diagnostic tests.
“We cannot stop vaccinating, this is the message that the Committee considers useful to send to citizens and governments,” said Houssin at the same press conference.
Regarding the conditions for covid-19 to stop being at the maximum health alert level, he explained that different criteria must come together, including epidemiological and others related to the impact of the coronavirus in places where transmission remains high.
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“It is wrong to believe that fewer cases mean there is less risk. We are glad that there are fewer deaths, but this virus has surprised us in the past, so we have to keep track of it all the time, “said the director of Health Emergencies of the WHO, Mike Ryan.
The deaths reported in the last week by covid-19 in the world have been the lowest since the pandemic began.
Regarding the latest discovered subvariants of omicron (called BA.4 and BA.5), the technical director for covid-19 at the WHO, Maria Van Kherkove, confirmed that they have been detected in a limited number of countries in Africa and Europe, and now it is being analyzed if they present any significant change with respect to the original variant.
He confirmed that at the moment no changes have been detected in the severity of the disease or in the defense offered by the vaccines, but he also recognized that it is premature to draw conclusions because the number of genetic sequences carried out is low.
