The director of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that he is “confident” the Corona epidemic will end in 2023.
Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the comments to reporters at a media briefing in Geneva.
“We are certainly in a much better position now than we have been at any time during the pandemic,” Dr. Ghebreyesus said.
He noted that in the past four weeks, the weekly number of reported deaths has been lower than it was before the pandemic was declared in March 2020.
“I am confident that this year, we will be able to say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern,” he added.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom
COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to trend downward worldwide.
However, despite its optimistic prediction, the WHO is not quite ready to announce the end of the pandemic at this precise moment in time.
“We are not there yet. Last week, there were still more than 5,000 reported deaths,” Dr. Ghebreyesus said during the briefing.
“That’s 5,000 too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated.”
Dr. Ghebreyesus also stressed the need to determine how the pandemic began.
“Last Sunday, WHO was made aware of data published on the GISAID database in late January, and taken down again recently,” he said.
