Tedros Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, said that COVID-19 has been removed from pandemic status. The speech was broadcast on the WHO YouTube channel.
According to him, last year the WHO emergency committee “analyzed the data and considered the question of when the right time would come to reduce the level of danger” of the coronavirus situation, and the previous day this committee met and made recommendations. The WHO chief’s declaration of the end of the public health emergency in connection with the spread of COVID.
“I agree. I announce with great hope that COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency.”
– said the head of the WHO.
However, removing the pandemic status does not mean that COVID has ceased to pose a threat to human health. “Last week, COVID-19 took a life every three minutes, and these are the only deaths we know of. As we speak, thousands of people around the world are struggling to survive in intensive care units, and millions are still living with the debilitating effects of the coronavirus. The virus is still killing and still mutating.” said Ghebreyesus.
According to him, according to official data alone, 7 million people have died from COVID, but the real numbers are higher and equate to at least 20 million victims.
WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020. From that moment, 3 years, 1 month and 3 weeks have passed – 1150 days.
According to the organization, more than 765 million cases of COVID infection have been recorded worldwide. According to the Stopcoronavirus.rf portal, about 23 million cases have been detected in Russia since the beginning of the spread of COVID – 22,870,557. About 400,000 people became victims of the disease – 398,463.
Earlier, Ghebreyesus noted that COVID has taught the world three lessons. The first is the important role of public health. The WHO chief said less wealthy countries generally cope better with the spread of COVID, as experience with other outbreaks has developed the habit of tracking contact with other people. Second, the importance of science in human life, making it possible to develop treatments and vaccines faster than any other pathogen in history. Third, the importance of cooperation between countries as the world confronts the pandemic with a “chaotic mix of responses.”
The source of the spread of COVID is still unknown. The first cases were reported in December 2019 in the Chinese province of Wuhan, where doctors at a hospital were flooded with patients with severe pneumonia of unknown origin. US officials – the administration of former President Donald Trump – accused China of spreading the virus, claiming that the virus started due to a leak in one of the laboratories in Wuhan. At the same time, Beijing accused Washington of spreading COVID, noting that it was the United States that was studying the virus more actively than others. In particular, it was stated that the USA, for fear of a possible leak, closed one of its laboratories where the coronavirus was examined before the first cases appeared. The Russian Ministry of Defense also claimed that the United States may have been involved in the spread of the infection.
The global economy has lost at least 4.3% of GDP due to the effects of the coronavirus, according to the UN. After the active spread of the disease began, many countries implemented total lockdowns that paralyzed the work of industrial enterprises, air travel, tourism, and also overloaded the health systems of many countries. Oil production has been hit hard by falling demand for energy resources and disrupted logistics chains, while oil prices fell during the active phase of the spread of the coronavirus.
In addition, the spread of COVID has led to increased emergence of conspiracy theories. The most popular of these were:
– Bill Gates wants to “chip people” under the pretext of vaccination;
– the coronavirus pandemic is an attempt to control the population;
– 5G mobile towers suppress the immune system and make it susceptible to COVID;
Coronavirus and the Israeli vaccine are Zionist biological weapons.