WHO: End of COVID-19 pandemic is ‘in sight’

The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing Wednesday that the global pandemic of the COVID-19 is expected to end, and the number of newly notified cases has dropped significantly, urging the world to seize the opportunity to end the pandemic.

Agence France-Presse reported that since COVID-19 was confirmed at the end of 2019, it has so far infected more than 600 million people and killed more than 6 million people worldwide. The number of reported cases of COVID-19 decreased by a substantial 12% from the previous week.

Deaths from COVID-19 last week were the lowest since March 2020, the U.N. agency reported.

Tedros told reporters: “We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic.We are not there yet, but the end is in sight.”

But he also stressed that the world needs to “seize this opportunity” to step up its efforts. “If we don’t take this opportunity now, we run the risk of more variants, more deaths, more disruption, and more uncertainty.” he said.