The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to end this year “as a public health emergency,” says the World Health Organization

The director of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that he was “confident”. Covid-19 pandemic ends in 2023.

Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the statement to reporters at a media briefing in Geneva.

“We are certainly in a much better position now than we have ever been during the pandemic,” said Dr. Ghebreyesus.

He noted that over the past four weeks, the weekly number of reported deaths has been lower than before the pandemic was declared in March 2020.

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“I am confident that this year we can say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern,” he added.

COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to decline around the world.

As of March 6, the number of weekly deaths worldwide stood at 5,048.

That’s a more than 26% drop from the previous week — and less than a peak of 102,000 deaths in January 2021, according to WHO data.

The number of weekly COVID-19 cases worldwide has fallen to 812,255, down 21.65% from the previous week. They peaked in December 2022 at 44.3 million.

“More than 5,000 deaths were reported last week.”

In the US, weekly cases fell to 149,955 on March 15 after peaking at 5.6 million on January 19, 2022, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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Weekly deaths in the country stood at 1,706, down from an all-time high of 23,478 on January 13, 2021 and a further increase from 17,357 on February 2, 2022.

“We’re not there yet”

However, despite its optimistic forecast, the WHO is not yet ready to announce the end of the pandemic at this precise moment.

“We’re not there yet. More than 5,000 deaths were still reported last week,” said Dr. Ghebreyesus during the briefing.

“That’s 5,000 too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated.”

In the US, weekly cases fell to 149,955 on March 15 after peaking at 5.6 million on January 19, 2022. (iStock)

dr Ghebreyesus also stressed the need to establish how the pandemic began.

“Last Sunday, the WHO was made aware of data published in the GISAID database at the end of January and recently removed,” he said.

“The data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Preventionrefers to samples taken at Huanan Market in Wuhan in 2020.”

dr Ghebreyesus said that while this particular data did not provide a “definitive answer” as to the origins of the pandemic, all of the information was important to achieve that goal.

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“This data could have been – and could have – been shared three years ago,” he continued. “We continue to urge China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results. Understanding how the pandemic began remains both a moral and scientific imperative.”

“We are certainly in a much better position now than we have ever been during the pandemic.”

dr Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City and a Fox News medical worker, said this weekend he questions the WHO’s reluctance to signal the end of the international emergency despite the weekly COVID death toll being lower than before the pandemic.

Weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths are steadily declining both in the US and globally. (iStock)

“Under China’s strong influence, WHO leadership actions have been erratic at best, delaying designation as a pandemic by nearly two months after it became widespread and failing to get China to be open and transparent about its origins be,” said Dr. Siegel interviewed Fox News Digital.

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“The pandemic has shown that the WHO is woefully inadequate at the highest level.”

In January 2023, President Joe Biden announced this End the COVID emergency on May 11th.

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He previously declared the pandemic “over” in September 2022.