WHO panel to assess if COVID-19 remains a 'global health emergency' next month

The emergency committee of the World Health Organization will meet in May to assess if they will lift or continue to declare COVID-19 as a "public health emergency of international concern".

At a press briefing Friday, WHO Western Pacific Regional Emergency Director Babatunde Olowokure said the assessment of the emergency committee on the global COVID-19 situation will be endorsed to WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for appropriate decision.

“There will be a meeting of the emergency committee some time in May and the emergency committee will then consider all the evidence that there is and then will advise the director-general of the WHO if the public health emergency of international concern should continue or not,” Olowokure said.

“The [director-general] has said that he is highly confident that at some time this year, we will be able to declare this public health emergency of international concern over,” he added.

Among the factors that the emergency committee will consider are the transmission of the COVID-19, the severity of hospitalizations and deaths, and the new variants which can affect the existing countermeasures against the virus.

This comes after some countries have already declared the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency locally.

“For them the emergency itself is over, but at this time, the public health emergency of international concern remains in place,” Olowokure said.

In January this year, the Department of Health (DOH) said that the Philippines is ready should the WHO declare an end to the global health emergency due to COVID-19 after the WHO expressed hope that COVID-19 would no longer be a global health emergency at some point in 2023.

On Wednesday, the DOH said the country may declare an end to the state of public health emergency if the COVID-19 situation in the Philippines remains manageable.

Figures from the DOH on Thursday showed 385 fresh infections with 54 cases of Omicron subvariant XBB.1.9.1. The XBB sublineage was recently added to the list of variants under monitoring by the WHO.

Meanwhile, Olowokure said the WHO is not expecting a rapid spread of Omicron subvariant XBB.1.9.1 in the Philippines even after the DOH reported 54 fresh cases of the strain.

“The transmissibility, yes, we recognize this maybe a challenge but as we have seen, there has only been a very slight increase in cases. So we are not looking at an outbreak of massive proportions but at the moment we are looking at something which is easily controllable and for which we can provide support that is necessary to DOH,” the WHO official said.  —VAL, GMA Integrated News