WHO meeting to decide on Covid-19 emergency set for January 27

10 January 2023 - 13:42
By Emma Farge
A World Health Organisation committee will meet on January 27 to consider whether the Covid-19 pandemic still represents a global emergency. Stock photo.
Image: 123RF/Oksana Smyshliaeva A World Health Organisation committee will meet on January 27 to consider whether the Covid-19 pandemic still represents a global emergency. Stock photo.

A World Health Organisation committee will meet on January 27 to consider whether the Covid-19 pandemic still represents a global emergency, a spokesperson said on Tuesday, three years after it was first declared.

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WHO spokesperson Carla Drysdale confirmed the timing of the meeting at a Geneva press briefing.

The Emergency Committee advises WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who makes the ultimate call on whether an outbreak represents a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern which is the UN agency's highest level of alert.

Several leading scientists and WHO advisers say it may be too early to declare the end of the Covid-19 pandemic emergency phase because of high levels of infections in China which dismantled its zero-Covid policy last month.

Reuters