According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), the risk from the coronavirus will decrease to that of influenza before the end of this year. This was said by the head of the WHO emergency program, Michael Ryan, in Geneva on Friday.
“I think we’re now getting to the point where we can see Covid-19 in the same way that we see seasonal influenza: as a health threat, as a virus that will continue to kill, but a virus that won’t wreak havoc on our society or bring our hospitals to a standstill. I believe that will be the case this year,” Ryan explained.
WHO chief expects the end of the pandemic
The number of weekly reported Corona deaths, at around 5000, was lower last week for the first time than three years ago when the WHO first spoke of a pandemic. This is a very positive development, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday.
The fact that Tedros uttered the word pandemic for the first time on March 11, 2020, did shake the world awake. But the WHO had declared the highest alert level six weeks earlier, on January 30, when it declared an emergency of international concern.
At the time, fewer than 100 cases were outside China and no deaths. “I am confident that this year we will be able to say that Covid-19 is over as an emergency of international concern,” Tedros said in Geneva.
- source: krone.at/picture: pixabay.com
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