WHO warns that “the end of COVID-19 as a global health emergency is not the end of COVID-19 as a global health threat“.
WHO: should we prepare for a new pandemic?
For the WHO, the risk remains “of another variant” or an emerging pathogen with even more deadly potential. According to Tedros Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, “when the next pandemic knocks, and it will, we must be ready to respond decisively, collectively and fairly“. Speaking at the World Health Assembly, meeting in session in Geneva until May 30, Ghebreyesus insisted that “the end of COVID-19 as a global health emergency is not the end of COVID-19 as a global health threat.”
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The risk of a new variant
For Ghebreyesus the risk remains “of another variant” or an emerging pathogen with even more deadly potential. The WHO director-general therefore urged member states to identify concrete ways to accelerate the pace of progress on health-related Sustainable Development Goals and to support increased contributions.