Covid-19: virus on the verge of becoming a seasonal flu-like threat, WHO says

Covid, a virus that will soon be no more dangerous than the flu? The WHO said on Friday that it hopes to lower the maximum alert level for Covid-19 this year, believing the epidemic is on the verge of no longer being a seasonal flu-like threat.

“I think we are getting to the point where we can look at Covid-19 the same way we look at seasonal flu, which is a health threat, a virus that will continue to kill, but a virus that is not destroying our society or our hospital systems,” Michael Ryan, head of the WHO emergency program, said at a press conference.

“It’s too early” to lower the alert level

“We are certainly in a better position than at any time since the start of the pandemic,” but it is “still too early” to lower the alert, in part due to the still very high number of deaths,” the CEO said. WHO. The next meeting of the emergency committee is theoretically scheduled for the end of April.

In late January, this WHO emergency committee proposed “alternative mechanisms to maintain global and national attention to Covid-19 after the end of this “public health emergency of international concern” that was introduced more than three years ago. He warned that there is a risk of giving the impression that we no longer need to worry about Covid.

“My message is clear: don’t underestimate this virus, it has surprised us and will continue to surprise us, and it will continue to kill unless we do more to provide medical supplies to people who need them and fight misinformation globally. scale,” the CEO insisted last January.

WHO declared this “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” on January 30, 2020 with fewer than 100 cases worldwide and no deaths outside of China, but only in March 2020 Dr Tedros called the situation a pandemic. that the world has fully appreciated the seriousness of the threat to health.