WHO will publish in February pandemic transition plan to “control phase”

The World Health Organization (WHO) will publish a new COVID-19 response plan at the end of February that will propose a transition, at the end of which the current management of the disease as a pandemic will end, the director of WHO announced on Monday. Agency Health Emergencies, Mike Ryan.

The ultimate goal will be to move to a phase in which there is “sustained control” of the disease, similar to how it is done with other respiratory problems such as the flu, Ryan said at a technical conference on the pandemic during the Executive Committee of WHO, which meets this week.

“To end the international emergency for the COVID-19 In 2022, there are still many things to do, such as reducing uncontrolled infection, especially in vulnerable populations, and reducing the risk of new variants emerging”, stressed the Irish expert.

Mortality rates must also be reduced (currently 1.6%, taking into account the official figures of infected and deceased in the world) and “minimize the long-term consequences of the infection,” Ryan said.

For this, “national health strategies must be optimized,” he added, and in this sense he pointed out that due to the different situations that each state is experiencing (for example, the unequal vaccination rate) “each country has to find its own way to lower the Mountain”.

Ryan stressed that it should be investigated what level of public health measures will have social acceptance in the future stages to follow, and stressed that the current strategy must also serve as preparation for the pandemics of the future.

In this sense, the director of emergencies of the WHO He stressed that “the next pandemic will surely be caused by a respiratory agent”, similar to the viruses that cause the flu or the coronaviruses that are behind COVID-19, SARS and other diseases.