“Speculating the End of the Pandemic: Welcome to the New Era”
WHO Officials Give Cautious Messages After Declaring End of COVID-19 Pandemic
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced that the COVID-19 pandemic no longer constitutes a global epidemic, marking a new stage against the virus. However, the decision has created confusion and raised questions regarding the measures that countries have taken to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
The announcement sparked comments claiming that the virus had lost its global pandemic feature. But while the pandemic declaration has ended, the epidemic remains as the virus continues to spread in different parts of the world.
The WHO issued an emergency public health alert on January 30, 2020, to encourage countries to take various measures to contain COVID-19 before it even had a name, and before it went beyond China. The pandemic declaration took place on March 11, 2020, when the virus was confirmed to have spread to all continents except Antarctica.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized that while the virus had taken only three minutes to claim one life last week, the danger still exists. He warned that if COVID-19 threatens the world once again, he would not hesitate to convene another Emergency Committee.
Dr. Mike Ryan, from the WHO’s Emergencies Programme, echoed the cautionary message, saying that the virus is expected to continue spreading and that it could take decades for the last throes of the pandemic to wear off. According to Ryan, epidemics typically end when the next epidemic starts.
Meanwhile, life in Turkey has returned gradually to its pre-pandemic state, with full normalization in place on March 2, 2022, when masks and social distancing measures were lifted. There are no special measures regarding COVID-19 in Turkey’s health system, which has stopped declaring the number of cases. However, 7 million people have already died from COVID-19 since it began in December 2019.
In conclusion, while WHO’s announcement marks the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world needs to maintain caution as the epidemic of the virus persists. It is important to continue following public health recommendations to mitigate the spread of the virus until it is eradicated completely.
