The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a public health emergency of international concern, according to the World Health Organization, which has issued the highest level of alert.
The COVID-19 pandemic is likely in a transitional phase, the WHO admitted.
After its 14th meeting on the COVID-19 pandemic on January 27, the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee released a press release on Monday.
The committee came to the conclusion that COVID-19 is still a serious infectious illness with the potential to seriously harm people’s health and healthcare systems.
The Emergency Committee on COVID-19 would convene to talk about whether the current state of affairs still qualified as a worldwide emergency, The PUNCH had reported last week.
On January 30, 2020, the WHO first declared COVID-19 a global health emergency. By that time, there had been more than 752 million cases and more than 684 million deaths reported.
The global health organization meanwhile encouraged nations to maintain being alert and reporting surveillance and genetic sequencing data.
The statement read in part, “The committee agreed that COVID-19 remains a dangerous infectious disease with the capacity to cause substantial damage to health and health systems.
“The committee discussed whether the continuation of a PHEIC is required to maintain global attention to COVID-19, the potential negative consequences that could arise if the PHEIC was terminated, and how to transition in a safe manner.
“The committee acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic may be approaching an inflexion point. Achieving higher levels of population immunity globally, either through infection and/or vaccination, may limit the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on morbidity and mortality, but there is little doubt that this virus will remain a permanently established pathogen in humans and animals for the foreseeable future.
“As such, long-term public health action is critically needed. While eliminating this virus from human and animal reservoirs is highly unlikely, mitigation of its devastating impact on morbidity and mortality is achievable and should continue to be a prioritised goal.”
The committee therefore advised WHO to develop a proposal for alternative mechanisms to maintain the international and national focus on COVID-19 after the PHEIC is terminated, including if needed a potential Review Committee to advise on the issuance of standing recommendations under the IHR. This recommendation should be made in consultation with partners and stakeholders.
“The committee also requested the WHO Secretariat to provide an assessment regarding the regulatory implications for developing and authorising vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics if the PHEIC were to be terminated in the coming months.
“The committee also encouraged WHO to assess and, if necessary, to accelerate the integration of COVID-19 surveillance into the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System.” the statement noted.
For the time being, the WHO advised states parties to keep up the COVID-19 immunization drive in order to reach 100% coverage of high-priority categories.
“States Parties should plan for integration of COVID-19 vaccination into part of life-course immunisation programmes. Regular data collection and reporting on vaccine coverage should include both primary and booster doses.
“Improve reporting of SARS-CoV-2 surveillance data to WHO. Better data are needed to: detect, assess, and monitor emerging variants; identify significant changes to COVID-19 epidemiology; and understand the burden of COVID-19 in all regions.
“States Parties are recommended to use an integrated approach to respiratory infectious disease surveillance that leverages the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response system.
“Surveillance should incorporate information from representative sentinel populations, event-based surveillance, human wastewater surveillance, sero-surveillance, and animal-human-environmental surveillance,” it added.
Over 13 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been given to date; 89% of medical professionals and 81 percent of seniors (those over 60) have finished the initial series.
