“I think we’re coming to that point where we can look at Covid-19 in the same way we look at seasonal influenza: a threat to health, a virus that will continue to kill, but a virus that is not disrupting our society,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference, adding, “I believe that that will come… this year.”

The WHO chief said the world was in a much better position now than it has been at any time during the pandemic.

It is very pleasing to see that, for the first time, the weekly number of deaths reported in the last four weeks has been lower than when we first used the word pandemic three years ago, he said.

“I am confident that this year we will be able to say that Covid-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC),” he said.

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