Geneva, Switzerland. Nagpulong ang World Health Organization’s emergency committee on COVID-19 nitong Biyernes upang talakayin kung dapat pang ikasa ang pinakamataas na lebel ng global alert para sa pandemya.
Bago ang pagpupulong, iminungkahi ni WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus na hindi pa tapos ang emergency phase ng pandemya, at binanggit ang mahigit 170,000 deaths mula sa virus sa nakalipas na dalawang buwan.
“While I will not preempt the advice of the emergency committee, I remain very concerned by the situation in many countries and the rising number of deaths,” pahayag niya sa press conference nitong Martes.
Ito na ang ika-14 pulong ng panel sa krisis halos tatlong taon mula nang unang ikasa ang WHO’s highest emergency alarm, sa dating tinatawag na novel coronavirus na nagsimulang kumalat sa China.
Nagpupulong ang independent committee kada tatlong taon upang talakayin ang pandemya at mga ulat kay Tedros.
“While we are clearly in better shape than three years ago when this pandemic first hit, the global collective response is once again under strain,” ayon kay Tedros noong Martes.
Sinabi niya na konti pa lamang ang ganap na bakunado, habang marami ang nasasapul ng COVID-19.
Gayundin, nahihirapan ang health systems na tugunan ang karagdagang COVID-19 burden.
Bumaba rin ang surveillance at genetic sequencing, dahilan para mahirapang ma-track ang iba’t ibang variant at matukoy ang mga bago.
Sinabi ni Tedros na ang virus “will continue to kill, unless we do more to get health tools to people that need them”.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
