WHO: COVID is still an emergency but nearing ‘tipping point’ Here’s what that means

GENEVA – The coronavirus remains a global health emergency, the head of the World Health Organization said Monday after a key advisory panel noted the pandemic may be nearing a “tipping point” where higher levels of immunity can reduce virus-related deaths.

Opening the WHO’s annual board meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “There is no doubt that we are in a far better situation now” than we were a year ago – when the highly transmissible Omicron variant was at its peak.

However, Tedros warned that at least 170,000 people have died from the coronavirus worldwide in the last eight weeks. He called for full vaccination of risk groups, an increase in testing and the early use of antivirals, an expansion of laboratory networks and a fight against “misinformation” about the pandemic.

“We remain hopeful that in the coming year the world will move into a new phase where we reduce hospital admissions and deaths to the lowest possible levels,” he said.

Tedros’ comments came shortly after WHO released the findings of its Emergency Committee on the pandemic, which reported about 13.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered — involving nearly 90% of health workers and more than four in five people over 60 years of age after completing the first series of jabs.

“The Committee recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic may be nearing a tipping point,” the WHO said in a statement. Higher levels of immunity worldwide from vaccination or infection ‘may limit the impact’ of the virus that causes COVID-19 on ‘morbidity’. and mortality,” the committee said.

“But there is little doubt that this virus will remain a permanently established pathogen in humans and animals for the foreseeable future,” it said. While Omicron versions are easily spread, “there was a decoupling between infection and severe disease” compared to previous variants.

Committee members cited “pandemic fatigue” and increasing public perceptions that COVID-19 is not as much of a risk as it used to be, leading people to increasingly ignore or disregard health measures like mask-wearing and social distancing.