“This Friday will mark two years since we said that the Covid-19 spreading around the world could be qualified as a pandemic”, recalled doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during a press briefing in Geneva, still virtual. .
He did not fail to recall that six weeks earlier, "when there were only 100 cases recorded outside of China and no deaths", he had triggered the highest level of health alert in the WHO - a public health emergency of international concern.
But this qualification had not struck the spirits and the organization was later criticized for having taken too long to take the measure of the disaster to come.
"Two years later, more than 6 million people have died," he said.
Although the WHO has noted for some time that the number of infections and the number of deaths are falling, "this pandemic is far from over and it will not be over anywhere if it is not over everywhere", underlined the boss of the organization.
The WHO noted very strong growth in the Western Pacific region, although globally the number of new infections and deaths fell by 5 and 8% respectively, according to the weekly epidemiological report.
"The virus continues to evolve and we continue to face major hurdles in getting vaccines, tests and treatments to wherever they are needed," insists Dr. Tedros.
WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Brussels, February 18, 2022 JOHANNA GERON POOL / AFP / Archives
The tests - which can detect new variants - are a source of concern for the WHO, its boss noting that "several countries have drastically reduced their tests".
"It prevents us from seeing where the virus is, how it is spreading and how it is evolving," he warned.
The testing strategy in South Africa had thus made it possible to detect the Omicron variant very quickly at the end of November 2021. It is now ultra-dominant.
© 2022 AFP