WHO: "The epidemic is not over yet"

The World Health Organization's emergency committee said Tuesday that the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic is not yet over, and called on countries to recognize all vaccines approved by the agency.

The COVID-19 emergency committee, headed by French Didier Hussein, meets every three months to assess the epidemiological situation.

After its last meeting last week, the committee issued a statement Tuesday stressing that "while progress has been made through increased use of vaccines and treatments against COVID-19, analysis of the current situation and prediction models indicate that the pandemic is not yet over."

This is the same committee that, at its second meeting on January 30, 2020, advised the Director-General of the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency, the highest level of preparedness for a pandemic.

Which he did.

The committee said in its statement issued on Tuesday that it had decided last week "unanimously that the epidemic continues to constitute an exceptional event that harms the health of the population in the world and poses a threat to the continuation of a global outbreak and impact on mobility and requires a coordinated international response."

In its recommendations to countries, the committee asked countries to "recognize all vaccines that have received authorization for emergency use" from the World Health Organization.

So far, the World Health Organization has approved the mRNA-based Moderna and Pfizer-Biontech vaccines, the Chinese Sinopharma and Sinovac vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, as well as different versions of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

A decision is expected soon on the covaccine vaccine developed by the Indian laboratory of Bharat Biotech.

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