Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Covid Pandemic's End Is 'In Sight,' WHO Chief Says
The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that the number of coronavirus deaths worldwide last week was the lowest reported in the pandemic since March 2020, marking what could be a turning point in the years-long global outbreak. At a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world has never been in a better position to stop COVID-19. 鈥淲e are not there yet, but the end is in sight,鈥 he said, comparing the effort to that made by a marathon runner nearing the finish line. 鈥淣ow is the worst time to stop running,鈥 he said. (9/14)
That was the most upbeat assessment from the UN agency since it declared an international emergency in January 2020 and started describing COVID-19 as a pandemic three months later. ... Countries need to take a hard look at their policies and strengthen them for COVID-19 and future viruses, Tedros said. He also urged nations to vaccinate 100% of their high-risk groups and keep testing for the virus. (Mishra, 9/14)
While Covid continues to circulate intensely around the world, future waves of infections don鈥檛 have to translate into waves of fatalities, said Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO鈥檚 technical lead officer for Covid. The organization declared Covid a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Since then, more than 606 million cases have been recorded, with nearly 6.5 million deaths. (Kresge, 9/14)
Fewer people are dying of covid 鈥
New COVID-19 cases worldwide fell 28% last week鈥攎arking a fifth straight week of declining cases鈥攁nd COVID-related deaths dropped 22% from the previous week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its weekly update today. (Wappes, 9/14)
The U.S. is currently averaging just under 400 daily COVID-19 related deaths. Although the daily number of fatalities is far lower than it was at the nation's peak, in January 2021, 3,400 Americans died of COVID-19 each day. (Mitropoulos, 9/15)
Also 鈥
The death toll from Covid-19 is "both a profound tragedy and a massive global failure at multiple levels," the Lancet Covid-19 Commission said in a report Wednesday. (Thomas, 9/14)
