The World Health Organization (WHO) announced its decision to maintain the spread of COVID-19 with the status of an international health emergency or pandemic because "it is not the time to let our guard down", but rather for countries to continue preparing to face this type of crisis.
The statement comes after on Monday, April 11, the United Nations Health Agency reported two new lineages of the Ómicron variant (BA.4 and BA.5), which are being studied.
The decision was communicated by the WHO coronavirus emergency committee, which warned that it was not "the time to let our guard down" as many countries lift restrictions. They recalled that the pandemic "is far from over" and "the virus evolves unpredictably."
"The situation, with respect to Covid-19, is far from over, the circulation of the virus is still very active, mortality remains high and the virus evolves unpredictably," declared the president of the committee, Didier Houssin, according to reported the AFP news agency.
"This is not the time to relax (measures) regarding this virus, nor to neglect surveillance, testing and reporting, nor to lax social and public health measures, nor to give up on vaccination," the doctor stressed during a press conference from Geneva.
For his part, the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, acknowledged that although some countries are registering peaks in infections, which puts pressure on their hospital systems, last week "the lowest number of deaths from Covid was recorded -19 since the first days of the pandemic."
The number of coronavirus cases continued to decline for the third consecutive week, with a decrease of 24% in the week of April 4 to 10 compared to the previous one, according to the latest weekly report on the epidemiological situation published last Tuesday by the agency. UN health care.
