On May 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a strategic plan for responding to Covid-19 for the period 2023-2025, the fourth such plan since the first cases were recorded in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
The new strategy will maintain the two goals of the previous plan, launched in 2022, of reducing the spread of the disease and providing treatment to reduce mortality, morbidity and long-term consequences.
However, the new plan adds a third objective to “support countries as they transition from emergency response to longer-term sustainable management, control and prevention of Covid-19”.
The announcement comes ahead of a meeting of the WHO's Covid-19 Emergency Committee to decide whether to maintain the maximum alert level for the Covid-19 pandemic.
Specifically, in a press release issued on May 2 (Vietnam time), WHO said that at the end of the meeting, the Covid-19 Emergency Committee will advise WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on whether the Covid-19 pandemic still constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
PHEIC is the WHO's highest level of alert for an epidemic, established in 2007, and has also been applied to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic flu, Ebola (twice), Zika, polio, and monkeypox. There are currently 3 active PHEICs: Covid-19, polio, and monkeypox.
Whether or not WHO designates an outbreak as a PHEIC has legal implications for member states, including health recommendations and regulations, as well as global resource sharing responsibilities.
Ending PHEIC is also the basis for member states to "downgrade" Covid-19, viewing it as a common infectious disease (endemic) instead of a pandemic.
Minh Hoa (reported by Vietnam+, Nguoi Lao Dong)
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