Vikrant Shekhawat : Mar 13, 2022, 10:09 AM
New Delhi : The World Health Organization has started considering criteria for ending the global COVID-19 crisis, two years after the outbreak of the coronavirus. The Geneva-based agency declared a public health emergency on January 30, 2020.Although the global health agency is not currently considering a declaration of an end to the corona emergency, it is exploring what conditions would indicate that the public health emergency has ended.Several countries have reported a decline in COVID-19 cases, but Hong Kong continues to see a rise in the death toll and China this week reported more than 1,000 new daily cases for the first time in two years."The International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on COVID-19 is looking into the criteria required to declare an end to a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.According to Bloomberg, the WHO said in an email, "The International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on COVID-19 is looking at the criteria needed to end the international public health emergency." Although it has not taken any decision "as of now."Last month, the WHO's head of emergencies said that the coronavirus pandemic - deaths, hospitalizations and lockdowns - could end this year if the huge disparities in vaccination and medicines are addressed quickly.Speaking during a panel discussion on vaccine equity organized by the World Economic Forum, Michael Ryan said "we can never eliminate viruses" because pandemic viruses like this "eventually become part of the ecosystem.""We have a chance this year to end the public health emergency, if we do the things we are talking about," he said, as reported by PTI.