GENEVA, Dec 14 The World Health Organization (WHO) hopes that COVID-19 will lose its pandemic status next year, even if the virus does not go away, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. 19 is no longer a global health emergency,» he said at a briefing with UN-accredited journalists from the ACANU association.
The head of WHO recalled that a year ago, the Omicron strain had just been identified and was beginning to gain momentum.
«At the time, COVID-19 was killing 50,000 people every week. Last week, fewer than 10,000 people died. That's still 10,000 too many and all countries can still do a lot to save lives, but we've come a long way «, he added.