Last Friday, January 27, there was a meeting of the Emergency Committee of the International Health Regulations (2005) (RSI), in which it was agreed that Covid-19 would continue to be treated as a public health emergency of international importance.
Although the Committee indicated that the Covid pandemic is currently approaching what they call “a tipping point”, they consider that the virus will continue to be a pathogen that will be permanently established in humans and animals in the future and therefore, it is necessary to critically long-term public health action.
“While the elimination of this virus from human and animal reservoirs is highly unlikely, mitigation of its devastating impact on morbidity and mortality is feasible and should remain a priority objective,” the agency said.
In addition, it was revealed that around 170,000 deaths worldwide in the last 2 months have been caused by Covid.
Also, the IHR invited the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop a proposal for alternative mechanisms to maintain the “global and national” approach on coronavirus and, in turn, provide an assessment regarding the regulatory implications for develop and authorize vaccines, diagnostics and therapies if this emergency were to end in the coming months.
On the subject, the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, thanked the IHR for having “mitigated” the possible negative consequences of not considering the coronavirus as a public health emergency of international concern.
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