Geneva - (AFP) - The World Health Organization's COVID-19 Emergency Committee met Thursday to discuss whether to maintain the highest level of preparedness in the face of the pandemic, more than two years after declaring a global emergency.

The committee meets quarterly to assess the epidemiological situation and decide whether to maintain the exceptional measures. The World Health Organization did not say when the committee's decisions would be announced.

The closed meeting of experts was chaired, as usual, by Frenchman Didier Hussein.

The World Health Organization declared a state of health emergency on January 30, 2020. But it was not until World Leaders took the danger seriously that WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described for the first time on March 11, 2020 the situation as a pandemic.

"We have never been in a better position to end the global health emergency," Tedros told the committee on Thursday.
He stressed that the number of deaths reported each week is at its lowest levels recorded since the start of the pandemic, pointing out that two-thirds of the world's population has become vaccinated, including 75 percent of the medical staff and the elderly.

"But our work is not done yet," he said, adding that there was still "a huge disparity in vaccination rates". He explained that three-quarters of people living in low-income countries have not yet received a single dose of the vaccine.

He also indicated that most countries have lifted measures aimed at limiting the spread of the epidemic. He once again expressed his regret that most countries have reduced the activities of monitoring the epidemic to a large extent, which prevents experts from following up on its transformations.

As of October 13, the World Health Organization has counted more than 620 million officially confirmed infections, which is a much lower number than the reality, as is the case for recording more than 6.5 million deaths.

"Several countries in Europe are now reporting an increase in infections, hospitalizations and deaths," Tedros said. "This was to be expected because the weather is getting colder in the Northern Hemisphere and people are spending more time together indoors," he added.