The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement on Wednesday regarding Covid-19, saying that while there has been a significant decrease in deaths from the virus this year, it remains a serious threat to public health.
The WHO warned that Covid-19 is now a long-term condition and countries must learn to manage its ongoing effects, such as Long Covid.
Although deaths from the virus have decreased by 95% since the start of this year, some countries have seen an increase in cases.
"We’re very encouraged by the sustained decline in reported deaths from Covid-19, which have dropped 95 percent since the beginning of this year," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The emergence of new variants, such as the XBB.1.16 variant, means the virus is still capable of causing new waves of disease and death.
The WHO also highlighted the dominance of XBB sub-lineages worldwide, which have an advantage in growth and are showing signs of immune escape.
The organization called for increased surveillance through testing to better understand these mutations and improve vaccine composition.
Tedros emphasized that although the WHO hopes to declare an end to the public health emergency caused by Covid-19, the virus is here to stay, and countries must learn to manage it alongside other infectious diseases.
“But this virus is here to stay, and all countries will need to learn to manage it alongside other infectious diseases,” he added.
Long Covid affects an estimated one in ten infections, indicating that hundreds of millions of people will need longer-term care.
The WHO chief stressed the importance of addressing barriers to immunization, including access, availability, cost, and disinformation, to prevent rising outbreaks of other diseases such as measles, diphtheria, polio, and yellow fever.
