Covid, WHO raises the alarm: 'The virus is still a threat to global health'

"I am concerned. We are now entering the fifth year of the pandemic" Covid, "certainly we are in a different phase", "characterised by an evolving virus, with the XBB and BA.2 sub-languages circulating and JN.1 becoming dominant", "characterised by a reduced impact compared to the Covid peak a few years ago, but still a threat to global health. It is still a pandemic that causes too many (re)infections, hospitalisations, deaths and cases of Long Covid, when tools exist to prevent them'.

These are the words of World Health Organisation expert Maria Van Kerkhove, who has been following the evolution of the Sars-CoV-2 virus since the start of the pandemic. Technical manager for Covid-19 at the WHO, Van Kerkhove, in a reflection on the transition from the old to the new year, warns that the variant 'JN.1 continues to increase in terms of detection, but what is important' for people 'is that Covid is circulating in all countries and you can protect yourself from serious infections and illnesses. Use masks, ventilate" environments, "test, treat" the disease, "vaccinate", booster "every 6-12 months depending on the risk group" to which you belong.

It is a situation, notes the expert, 'characterised by the co-circulation of many other pathogens, e.g. influenza, mycoplasma, Rsv, etc.'. Cases and admissions for Covid have been increasing for months. Hospitals in many countries are overburdened and overwhelmed by Covid and other pathogens, and deaths are increasing'. What is also worrying, he adds in his message, is 'complacency. I will never accept that there is an 'acceptable level of death' for Covid. And that still applies. Governments must not be complacent, people must not be complacent. We have all experienced something traumatic with Covid. The world shut down, we lost millions of loved ones, billions were personally affected' by the virus. "We cannot forget. And the legacy of Covid must be the strengthening of health systems' in the first place.

"I am concerned that too many people think that Covid is not something to worry about, that they need a new variant with a Greek letter to take this virus seriously. When we have to assign a Greek letter, we will not hesitate,' Van Kerkhove continues. But in the meantime, he repeats, 'it is worrying that we want to move on so much that governments, many of which have new leadership and have moved on, will forget the overflowing hospitals, the tents in the car parks for the sick, the refrigerated trucks that acted as morgues, the cemeteries, the exhausted health workers'.

"We cannot forget those who died alone and the people who die now, thousands every week", the "hospitalised", the people with "Long Covids who struggle every day. These memories, still fresh, must feed and fund better health systems, equity, pandemic preparedness for current and future threats. All this" set "in the context of other challenges (war, displacement, climate change). We must do better' and 'it is difficult', he concludes, recalling the theme of the Pandemic Accord.