WHO experts will assess whether the world is ready to end the COVID emergency

LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) – A panel of global health experts will meet on Thursday to decide whether COVID-19 remains an emergency under World Health Organization rules, a status that helps maintain international focus. about the pandemic.

The WHO first gave COVID its highest alert level on January 30, 2020, and the panel has continued apply the label since then, in meetings held every three months.

However, several countries, such as the USA, have recently started to lift their internal states of emergency. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said he hopes to end the international emergency this year.

A final decision from Tedros based on the panel’s advice is expected in the coming days. There is still no consensus on the panel’s decision, WHO advisers and outside experts told Reuters.

“The emergency may end, but it is essential to communicate that COVID remains a complex public health challenge,” said Professor Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who is on the WHO panel. She declined to speculate further ahead of the discussions, which are confidential.

A source close to the negotiations said lifting the label of a “public health emergency of international concern,” or PHEIC, could affect global funding or collaborative efforts. Another said the unpredictability of the virus made it difficult to call at this stage. Others said it was time to move on to living with COVID as an ongoing health threat, like HIV or tuberculosis.

“All emergencies must come to an end,” said Lawrence Gostin, a law professor at Georgetown University in the United States who follows the WHO.

“I hope the WHO puts an end to the public health emergency of international concern. If the WHO doesn’t put an end to it… (this time), then certainly the next time the emergency committee meets.”

Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), said he was concerned that a change in status would lead to complacency, with weaker surveillance and lower vaccination levels.

“(PHEIC) does not bring any kind of harm to the countries but at the same time it keeps their attention,” he told reporters.

Reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London and Emma Farge in Geneva; Edited by Alexandra Hudson

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