When disease burden is low, why COVID-19 continues to be a pandemic?
SHOBHA SHUKLA, BOBBY RAMAKANT - CNS
On 30 January 2023, three years after the WHO had first declared COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern, the WHO announced that COVID-19 continues to be a public health emergency of international concern.
"While the virus is still circulating in our populations and the risk of mutations is there, the number of people with COVID-19 who need medical attention has gone down in countries like India. There is no rationale for inconveniencing people with COVID-pandemic-related measures when neither its associated disease burden on hospitals nor untimely deaths warrants any of them," said Dr Ishwar Gilada, Secretary General of Organized Medicine Academic Guild (OMAG) - a pan-India network of professional associations of broader medical super-specialities.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), globally, over 4.8 million new cases and over 39,000 deaths were reported in the last 28 days (30 January to 26 February 2023), a decrease of 76% and 66%, respectively, compared to the previous 28 days. Moreover, at the global level, during the past 28 days, a total of 42,258 new hospitalizations and 1619 new intensive care unit (ICU) admissions were reported. This represents a reduction in both new hospitalizations and ICU admissions of 83% and 49%, respectively, (compared to the previous 28 days). Out of all the countries that report data on COVID-19-related ICU admissions to the World Health Organization (WHO), no country showed an increasing trend of ICU admissions compared to the previous 28 days period.
That is why OMAG calls upon the WHO to declare that COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency of international concern, and the Indian government to officially announce end of the pandemic and withdraw the unnecessary pandemic-related measures in place.
"OMAG's call to declare that COVID-19 is no longer a pandemic, is not a call to stop being vigilant, or stop doing disease surveillance. Rather OMAG is calling to ensure that proper disease surveillance and reporting systems are in place, vaccine (and booster/ precautionary doses) is within reach of everyone eligible for it across the country, and globally, and pandemic preparedness is getting the attention it deserves. Infection prevention should indeed remain the mainstay," said Dr Ishwar Gilada, who is also the President of AIDS Society of India and Governing Council member of International AIDS Society (IAS).
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