During the first week of May, the WHO emergency committee on Covid, which meets every three months, will have to decide whether to maintain high alertsaid Dr. Michael Ryan, in charge of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, at a press conference in Geneva.
He said he hoped that on that occasion the committee would have “positive tips” to be given to the head of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (who makes the final decision), “regarding their assessment of the trajectory of the pandemic and whether or not there is a public health emergency of international concern”.
The WHO had declared this maximum alert on January 30, 2020, when the world had less than 100 cases and no deaths outside of China.
It was not until Dr. Tedros called the situation a pandemic, in March 2020, that the world realized the full extent of the seriousness of the health threat.
“Pantheon of Respiratory Viruses”
On Tuesday, Dr. Ryan pointed out that the“you don’t turn off a switch to automatically go into an endemic situation. It is much more likely that we will go (…) from a bumpy path to a more predictable pattern”.
He therefore called for caution in the choice of words. “I think there is a misunderstanding. Very often respiratory viruses, for example, like influenza, do not go through an endemic phase,” he indicated.
“They are going from a pandemic to very low levels of activity, with potentially seasonal epidemics or epidemics that occur on an annual or semi-annual basis”he explained.
Regarding the Covid, which is a respiratory virus, the WHO therefore expects it to pass “at a phase of low incidence with potential peaks, especially when in certain seasons people find themselves indoors” houses and buildings due to the cold, added Dr. Ryan.
He insisted that the virus itself will not go away: “We will not eliminate it and the SARS-CoV-2 virus will join the pantheon of respiratory viruses, like influenza viruses” et “will continue to cause significant respiratory diseases“.
