WHO prepares to mark six months since declaration of Covid-19 as public health emergency

July 30 will mark six months since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Covid-19 a public health emergency of international concern.

This is the sixth time a global health emergency has been declared under the International Health Regulations, but it is easily the most severe.

“Almost 16 million cases have now been reported to WHO, and more than 640 000 deaths. The pandemic continues to accelerate,” said WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

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In the past six weeks, the total number of cases has roughly doubled.

“When I declared a public health emergency of international concern on January 30 there were less than 100 cases outside of China, and no deaths”.

As required under the International Health Regulations Dr Tedros will reconvene the Emergency Committee later this week to re-evaluate the pandemic.

“Covid-19 has changed our world. It has brought people, communities and nations together, and driven them apart. It has shown what humans are capable of, both positively and negatively,” the director general said.

“Although our world has changed, the fundamental pillars of the response have not. These pillars are political leadership, and informing, engaging and listening to communities. The basic measures needed to suppress transmission and save lives have also not changed. These are to find, isolate, test and care for cases; and trace and quarantine their contacts,” he said.

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Dr Tedros said everyone should keep their distance from others, clean their hands, avoid crowded and enclosed areas, and wear a mask where recommended.

“Where these measures are followed, cases go down. Where they’re not, cases go up.

“Countries and communities that have followed this advice carefully and consistently have done well, either in preventing large-scale outbreaks, like Cambodia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Thailand, Vietnam, and islands in the Pacific and Caribbean, or in bringing large outbreaks under control like Canada, China, Germany and the Republic of Korea,” he said.

Over the past six months, WHO has worked to support countries to prepare for and respond to this virus.

“Within days of learning of the first cases in China, we published extensive guidance on how to find, test and treat cases and protect health workers.

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“We have brought together thousands of experts from all over the world, in many disciplines, to analyse the evolving evidence and distil it into guidance. Never before has WHO produced such a large volume of technical advice in such a short period,” Dr Tedros said.

More than 4 million people have enrolled in WHO training courses through the OpenWHO.org online learning platform.

“As we mark six months since the declaration of the global health emergency, the Covid-19 pandemic is illustrating that health is not a reward for development, it’s the foundation of social, economic and political stability. We are not prisoners of the pandemic. Every single one of us can make a difference. The future is in our hands.

“WHO remains totally committed to serving all people and all countries with science, solutions and solidarity,” Dr Tedros said.

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