The head of the World Health Organization is “extremely concerned” about the rising number of COVID deaths worldwide, he said on Tuesday – just days before his committee meets to decide whether to end or extend the global public health emergency .
Global COVID deaths have been increasing since December, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference, adding that 170,000 people had died as a result of the virus in the past eight weeks.
“These are just reported deaths,” he said. “The actual number of deaths is much higher.”
The Global Health Organization’s Emergency Response Committee will meet on Friday to vote on whether to end the organization’s COVID emergency status after three years. Ghebreyesus said he would “not preempt” the committee but remains “very concerned about the situation in many countries and the rising number of deaths”.
“While we are clearly in better shape than we were three years ago when the pandemic broke out, the global collective response is under renewed pressure,” said Ghebreyesus, who will make the final decision after receiving recommendations from the committee.
Pressure factors include not enough people being vaccinated and refreshed, too few people having access to antivirals, and the vulnerability of a healthcare system dealing with other threats such as influenza and RSV. Also contributing to this is a “stream of pseudoscience and misinformation,” he added.
“My message is clear: don’t underestimate this virus,” he said. “It must and will continue to surprise us, and it will continue to kill if we don’t do more.”
The death toll does not take China into account
In mid-December, Ghebreyesus said he was confident the global public health emergency would end in 2023. At that point, the global weekly death toll was 10,000, one-fifth of what it was during Omicron’s peak in January 2022.
“That’s still 10,000 too many and there’s still a lot countries can do to save lives, but we’ve come a long way,” he said at the time.
The story goes on
Reported COVID deaths totaled 53,000 from mid-December to mid-January — a 20% increase from the same period a month ago, the WHO said in a Jan. 19 epidemiological update. The total does not include the nearly 60,000 COVID deaths reported by China over a similar period, as the WHO awaits more details on them, the report said. The global reported deaths for the pandemic total 6.7 million.
Reported deaths have risen in the past month in the Americas and Europe, as well as in the western Pacific and eastern Mediterranean. According to the report, reported deaths fell by 76% in Africa and 56% in Southeast Asia over the same period.
The definition of an international emergency
A Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) is defined by International Health Regulations as “an extraordinary event determined to pose a risk to public health [WHO member states] by the international spread of disease and may require a coordinated international response,” WHO said. This implies that the situation is “serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected” and may require immediate international action.
As soon as a potential emergency is reported to WHO by a member state, the organization convenes an emergency committee of international experts to make a recommendation to the WHO Director-General as to whether it is a PHEIC.
However, the final decision rests with the Director General. In July, Ghebreyesus declared an international health emergency for mpox — the new name for monkeypox the organization recommended last fall to reduce stigma — when the committee twice failed to reach consensus because criteria in international health regulations forced him to do so.
Emergency committees also advise on the termination of PHEICs, which must be reviewed every three months. There are currently WHO public health emergencies worldwide for COVID, Polio and MPOX. Emergency committees have been convened seven more times in the past for diseases such as Ebola (three times), H1N1 and MERS. They may also be called for chemical warfare agents and radioactive materials, as well as bacterial illnesses.
The purpose of declaring a PHEIC is to facilitate international coordination of diagnostics, treatments and/or vaccines. But critics say such declarations can put economic strain on affected countries, especially if they result in travel and trade restrictions.
This story was originally published on Fortune.com
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