COVID-19 deaths down 95%, but still 14,000 dead in one month

"We are very encouraged by the steady decline in reported deaths from COVID-19, which have fallen by 95% since the beginning of this year," the World Health Organisation's director-general told a news conference on Tuesday.

However, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that some countries are reporting an increase in cases and in the last four weeks 14,000 people have lost their lives to COVID.

The head of the UN agency said that an estimated one in 10 infections now results in what is commonly known as "long COVID", suggesting that hundreds of millions of people will need longer-term care in the future.

As the emergence of the new variant XBB.1.16 demonstrates, the virus continues to mutate and is still capable of causing new waves of illness and death, said Dr Tedros. 

"We have the hope that sometime this year we will be able to declare the end of COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern. But this virus is here to stay, and all countries will have to learn to manage it along with other infectious diseases," he added.

During the press briefing, Tedros also announced the fourth update of the Emerging Threats Preparedness and Resilience Initiative, launched by WHO in February 2020 and aimed at strengthening the capacity of all countries to cope with the next pandemic. 

The update incorporates the latest tools available to the World Health Organization, reflecting the shared learning and collective action protocols established during the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent public health emergencies.

The guidance also provides a joint approach to responding to a threat or the arrival of any respiratory pathogen such as influenza or any other virus in the coronavirus range, which have the ability to mutate rapidly into different variants.

This update describes how countries can "move from emergency response to sustained, long-term management of COVID-19" over a two-year period.

"Rather than focusing on specific pathogens or diseases, the WHO-designed plan takes an integrated approach to pandemic planning, focusing on groups of pathogens and the systems they affect. To begin with, the strategy will focus on respiratory pathogens, such as influenza, coronaviruses, RSV and as yet unknown pathogens," but added that, by definition, "pandemics are global events, underscoring the importance of international collaboration," Tedros said. 

"The initiative is also designed to promote collaboration across sectors. As COVID-19 demonstrated, a pandemic is not just a health crisis. It affects economies, education, trade, travel, food supply systems and more".

That is why the Emerging Threats Preparedness and Resilience Initiative will involve as many sectors of human activity as possible, including civil society, religious groups and young people.

Tedros said the plan responds to the call for technical guidance and support to promote and strengthen integrated preparedness and response, as outlined in World Health Assembly resolutions.