When does WHO declare public health emergency? Scientist explains 

“It cannot be emphasised enough: Declaring a Public Health Emergency of International Concern is our highest level of alert that the WHO and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus can call out to the world (sic),” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19 in a Twitter post. 

“What the world has failed to understand is that we do this BEFORE we reach a state of being IN a pandemic. This alert is not a subtle call to action. It is global alarm to act immediately, to act comprehensively, to wake up and act fast,” she added. 

Kerkhove said that while the WHO has been outlining the measures that need to be taken for two years now, some countries have chosen to act on it while others did not. 

“@WHO outlined what was needed to be done then and now. Some countries listened and acted aggressively to this unknown threat … many did not (sic),” she said. 

“Let’s not forget all we have learned. Let’s apply these lessons now to end the emergency of the Covid-19 pandemic. Let’s invest & rebuild the public health infrastructure all countries need for COVID & other threats. Let’s rebuild the trust of communities everywhere. Now (sic),” she added. 

Her statement came after WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the world has a chance to end the acute phase of Covid-19 in 2022.

“On this day two years ago, I declared the Covid-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern to alert the world to this threat. WHO had been sharing advice with countries to help them respond since early January 2020 and we have not stopped since,” said Tedros.

“This year, we could end the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic if we vaccinate 70% of the population of every country, with a focus on the most at-risk groups, and use all strategies and tools in a comprehensive and equitable way,” he added.

Earlier this month, the head of emergencies at the WHO, Dr Michael Ryan, had said that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic — deaths, hospitalisations and lockdowns — could be over this year if huge inequities in vaccinations and medicines are addressed quickly.

Speaking during a panel discussion on vaccine inequity hosted by the World Economic Forum, Ryan said “we may never end the virus” because such pandemic viruses “end up becoming part of the ecosystem.”

But “we have a chance to end the public health emergency this year if we do the things that we’ve been talking about,” he said.

WHO has slammed the imbalance in Covid-19 vaccinations between rich and poor countries as a catastrophic moral failure. Fewer than 10% of people in lower-income countries have received even one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.