‘End in sight’ for COVID pandemic, WHO says, as worldwide deaths drop to March 2020 levels

There’s light at the end of the tunnel.

The end of the COVID-19 pandemic may be near, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

“We are not there yet, but the end is in sight,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva.

Worldwide COVID deaths per week dropped last week to levels not seen since the pandemic hit the U.S. in March 2020, the WHO said.

COVID deaths dropped 22% worldwide last week, according to WHO data. Still, 11,000 people died from the disease around the world.

Tedros stressed that nations must continue taking actions to stop the spread of COVID-19.

“If we don’t take this opportunity now, we run the risk of more variants, more deaths, more disruption, and more uncertainty,” he said.

The newest omicron subvariant, BA.5, accounts for almost 90% of cases worldwide, according to the WHO.

Pharmaceutical companies in both the U.S. and Europe recently rolled out vaccines that target BA.5, but they have not yet been widely administered.

Despite the good news, 3.1 million new COVID cases were reported across the globe last week. That still marked a 28% drop from the previous week, and the case counts have declined around the planet for weeks.

But Tedros cautioned against resting on the laurels of relative success.

“Now is the worst time to stop running,” he said. “Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap all the rewards of our hard work.”

With News Wire Services

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