WHO warns Covid pandemic still volatile

GENEVA, Switzerland: The World Health Organisation on Tuesday warned the Covid pandemic was still volatile, saying there could be further trouble before the virus settles into a predictable pattern.

In the last 28 days, more than 23,000 deaths and three million new cases have been reported to the WHO, in the context of much-reduced testing.

While the numbers are decreasing, “that´s still a lot of people dying and that´s still a lot of people getting sick”, WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference.

He said respiratory viruses do not pass from a pandemic to an endemic phase, but instead move to low levels of activity with potentially seasonal epidemic peaks.

“We don´t turn off a pandemic switch,” said Ryan.

“It´s much more likely that we´re going to see... a bumpy road to a more predictable pattern.”

The WHO´s emergency committee on Covid-19 meets every three months and is due to assemble in early May.

As at its previous meetings, it will decide whether the virus still constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) -- the highest level of alert that the UN health agency can sound.

The WHO declared Covid-19 a PHEIC on January 30, 2020, when there were fewer than 100 cases and no deaths outside China.