The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that the COVID-19 pandemic remains a threat and may cause more problems before the virus settles into a predictable pattern.

In the past 28 days, the organization has recorded more than 23,000 deaths and three million infections, in the context of the greatly reduced number of virus detection tests.

While the numbers are declining, "the number of those who die is still high, as well as the number of people who fall ill," according to the organization's director of emergencies, Michael Ryan , at a press conference.
He said that respiratory viruses do not move from the pandemic stage to the endemic disease stage, but rather move to lower levels of activity with the possibility of reaching seasonal epidemic levels.

“A pandemic is not a button that will be turned off,” Ryan said, adding, “We will likely see ... a bumpy road toward a more predictable pattern.”

The WHO COVID-19 Emergency Committee meets once every three months. It is expected to hold its next meeting in early May.

As it has done in its previous meetings, it will decide whether the virus still constitutes a health emergency of global proportions, the highest emergency that the organization can declare.

On January 30, 2020, the organization declared COVID-19 a health emergency of global proportions, and on that day, the number of infections recorded outside China was less than 100 and zero deaths.

But only when WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the situation as a pandemic in March 2020, did the world spring to action.

The virus cannot be eradicated and, like influenza, will continue to cause respiratory illness in vulnerable people, Ryan said.

In some countries there are large numbers of vulnerable unvaccinated people, he said, while in others Covid is no longer an emergency.

The COVID-19 committee makes its recommendation to Tedros, who has the final say on whether the virus remains a health emergency of global proportions.

"I hope, by the time the Emergency Committee meets in May, that she will have more positive advice for Dr. Tedros on her assessment of the trajectory of the epidemic and whether or not there is a health emergency of global proportions," Ryan said.