Geneva/New York, September 14 – The World Health Organization said Covid-19 has become a manageable disease and its end may be in sight as weekly reports have shown that deaths are at their lowest level since March 2020.

“We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, said in a press conference in Geneva. But he warned also that “the world is not there yet.”

“A marathon runner does not stop when the finish line comes into view,” he said. “She runs harder, with all the energy she has left. So must we. We can see the finish line. We’re in a winning position. But now is the worst time to stop running.”

Tedros warned that Covid-19 still cause new infections and deaths and he urged governments to continue to fight the disease.

The WHO weekly report on the pandemic showed that deaths dropped 22 per cent last week to just over 11,000 worldwide and there were 3.1 million new Covid-19 cases, a drop of 28 per cent.

More than 6.4 million deaths

WHO said that globally as of September 13, 2022 that there have been 606,459,140 confirmed cases of Covid-19, including 6,495,110 deaths. More than 12 billion of vaccine doses have been administered.

Policy Briefs

Tedros said WHO has released six short policy briefs outlining key actions that all governments must take now to “finish the race.”

“We can end this pandemic together, but only if all countries, manufacturers, communities and individuals step up and seize this opportunity,” he said.

The briefs constitute “an urgent call for governments to take a hard look at their policies and strengthen them for COVID-19 and future pathogens with pandemic potential,” Tedros said.

See the briefs, which are available online.

One of the briefs said the first Covid-19 cases were reported more than two and a half years ago, but the pandemic “remains an acute global emergency.”

“At the present time, there continue to be millions of people infected each week with SARS- CoV-2, and in the first eight months of 2022, more than one million people were reported to have died from COVID-19 (WHO COVID-19 Dashboard). With access to and appropriate use of existing life-saving tools, COVID-19 can become a manageable disease with significantly reduced morbidity and mortality. Lives and livelihoods can be saved, but there is still work to be done.”

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